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CZECH FOLK TALES

him stay there for the night. She tried to dissuade him.

"It is impossible, good sir. My lord is used to blow terribly. It will be exceedingly cold."

He answered: "I will cover myself up and crouch somewhere. I can endure cold, and, anyhow, my cloak is warm enough." So he stayed there for the night.

After midnight the Wind came home and asked: "Who is here with you, wife? I smell a man."

"Who should be here?" she said. "Your nose is still full of the human smell."

But the Wind persisted: "There is somebody here! Tell me!"

So she confessed. "Don't be angry, dear husband! There is a man staying here for the night, and he wants to ask you whether you will be kind enough to take him to his bride's castle."

The Wind answered: "It is very far from here, and I must ask the Lord how strongly I am to blow, if we are to get there. I was there yesterday; they are going to celebrate a wedding there, and they have been drying some shirts ready for it, and I have been helping them."