"Because they both refused to accompany me," the King answered.

And the youngest daughter said bravely: "Well, father, I might be worse off than I am. The green girl is certainly ugly, but she cannot help it; and she and the greyhound have both been very kind to me. So, my dear father, for your sake I will marry the greyhound and you can return to your kingdom."

The green girl joyfully fetched a priest, and while the marriage ceremony was going on the youngest daughter stood with her eyes closed, that she might not see her strange bridegroom. And when she heard him say, " Look at me, my little wife," it was an effort for her to open them. But they opened very wide indeed, for there stood before her the handsomest young man she had ever seen! Her consent to marry him had restored his own shape to the greyhound, who was once more Fergus, the King's son, and the bride was now full of happiness.

Fergus went and fetched two treasures to show to his father-in-law---the golden sceptre and the inlaid sword that he had buried unuer the cairn on Beinn Ghloine. And he was thankful that he could now bury his father's bones.

When the King returned, well pleased, to his kingdom and told his elder daughters how happy their sister was, they were full of envy. One of them said spitefully:"Well, she may have got her Prince, but it will be very unpleasant to have to live with a grass-green sister-in-law! "

But the King told them that the green girl was no longer in the Castle, for she' had gone to live at the foot of Beinn Ghloine.

The two jealous sisters made a wicked plan-that, if a child should come to their sister, one of them would steal it away from her. And sure enough, when a babe was born to Fergus and his wife, the eldest sister came secretly to the Castle and stole to the room where the baby was. She opened the door stealthily, and was creeping up to the cradle in which it lay, when a green hand came in at the window and lifted out the child before she could reach it. So the eldest sister had to return home and confess that her plot had failed.
关键字:灰狗和小女孩
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