THE BOY WHO KNEW WHAT THE BIRDS SAID
"They won't awaken," said MacDraoi the Harper.
"Then you can hang there," said Feet-in-the-Ashes.
"They won't awaken," said MacDraoi, "until I cause them to awaken, and I shall cause them to awaken if you lift me down from this."
"Will you promise by your head," said Feet-in-the-Ashes.
"By my head I promise," said the Giant's Harper.
Then Feet-in-the-Ashes lifted the Harper down from the rafters and set him upon his legs. MacDraoi took up the harp and he pulled the strings back-ways. The notes he drew out were so piercing that first one and then another and then a third of the three youths wakened up. Then, when they were on their feet MacDraoi, the Giant's Harper, slipped out of the house and went away. What happened to the Harper after that no one knows.
"Cluck, cluck," said the Hen-grouse, "and what did they do after that?"
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