"
The King listened to all this and then he sat and thought. "What is
there in it that I can't do?" he asked. "Do you not all know of the
coaches in Ireland that are drawn by horses without heads and driven
by coachmen without heads?"
All the fairies looked at one another and nodded and said, "Yes, yes,
we know."
But Naggeneen came forward and stood before the throne. Nobody had
noticed that he had been listening or that he was there. "And what if
those coaches were in Ireland?" he said. "They had horses, though the
horses had no heads. Can you make iron coaches go without any horses
at all?"
The King was trying to talk boldly, but he stammered and grew pale at
the very thought of having anything to do with an iron coach, and he
did not answer. He went on instead: "Can I not send any one of you on
a message, as fast as the wind?"
"But can you talk for ten miles," Naggeneen asked, "and will the very
voice of you go as fast as the lightning?"
"Why would I want to be doin' that," said the King, "when I can send a
messenger as fast as I like?"
"That's not the question," said the cruel Naggeneen; "can you do it?"
"I never tried," said the King.
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