They put it in an old hencoop, and they gave it some of
the meal they had for themselves; - I don't know if it ate the meal,
but they divided what they had themselves; they could do no more.
That night it laid a fine spotted egg in the basket. The next night
it laid another.
At that time its name was on the papers and many heard of the bird
that laid the golden eggs, for the eggs were of gold, and there's no
lie in it.
When the boys went down to the shop the next day to buy a stone of
meal, the shopman asked if he could buy the bird of them. Well, it
was arranged in this way. The shopman would marry the boys'
sister - a poor simple girl without a stitch of good clothes - and get
the bird with her.
Some time after that one of the boys sold an egg of the bird to a
gentleman that was in the country. The gentleman asked him if he had
the bird still. He said that the man who had married his sister was
after getting it.
'Well,' said the gentleman, 'the man who eats the heart of that bird
will find a purse of gold beneath him every morning, and the man who
eats its liver will be king of Ireland.'
The boy went out - he was a simple poor fellow - and told the shopman.
Then the shopman brought in the bird and killed it, and he ate the
heart himself and he gave the liver to his wife.
When the boy saw that, there was great anger on him, and he went
back and told the gentleman.
'Do what I'm telling you,' said the gentleman. 'Go down now and tell
the shopman and his wife to come up here to play a game of cards
with me, for it's lonesome I am this evening.'
When the boy was gone he mixed a vomit and poured the lot of it into
a few naggins of whiskey, and he put a strong cloth on the table
under the cards.
The man came up with his wife and they began to play.
The shopman won the first game and the gentleman made them drink a
sup of the whiskey.
They played again and the shopman won the second game. Then the
gentleman made him drink a sup more of the whiskey.
As they were playing the third game the shopman and his wife got
sick on the cloth, and the boy picked it up and carried it into the
yard, for the gentleman had let him know what he was to do. Then he
found the heart of the bird and he ate it, and the next morning when
he turned in his bed there was a purse of gold under him.
