"We've nothing here but our own food. You couldn't
give him that. What did you bring him here for? Was it not so that you
could send him out again, as he grows up, to learn to do the things
that men do? And if he touched a bit of our food or our drink, you
know he could never leave us."
"That's the true word," said the King. "Here! Some of you go to the
O'Briens' and see is there any milk left out of the window. And bring
back enough so there'll be some for the other child, when we get her."
As the fairies set off on this errand there came a sound like the
whistling of the wind through the door, and those who had gone to
bring the O'Briens' child were back. They were back in a whirl and a
rush and a scramble and a rout. They were all screaming and crying and
whimpering and gabbling and gibbering together, and they all fell and
sprawled together in a heap before the King. In the midst of them was
the woman who had been sent to take the place of the O'Briens' child.
"What for are you here without the child?" the King cried.
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