Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

I20 Fictions of the Irish Celts.
You know we can be any size we please, and there was
a score of us settled before the fire.
" We were vexed enough when we saw your daughter
come up out of your bedroom, and make towards the
fire. Her feet, I acknowledge, were white and clean, but
one of them would cover two or three of us, the size we
were that night. On she came stalking, and just as I was
raising my cup of tea to my lips, down came the soft flat
sole on it, and spilled the tea all over me. I was very
much annoyed, and I caught the thing that came next to
my hand, and hurled it at her. It was the tea-pot, and
the point of the spout is in the small of her leg from
that night till now." " Oh, lady, darlint ! how can you
hold spite to the poor slob of a girl, that knew no more of
you being there, nor of offending you, than she did of the
night she was bom % " " ^^'ell, well ; now that it is all past
and gone, I believe you are right. At all events, you
have done so much for me, that I cannot refuse you any-
thing. Take this ointment, and rub it where you will
see the purple mark, and I hope that your thoughts of
me may be pleasant."
Just then, a messenger came to say that the lord was
at the hall door waiting for Nora, for the cocks would
be soon a-crowing. .So she took leave of the lady, and
mounted behind the dark man. The horse's back seemed
as hard and as thin as a hazel stick, but it bore her safely
to her home. She was in a sleepy state all the time she
was returning, but at last she woke up, and found herself
standing by her own door. She got into bed as fast as
she could, and when she woke next morning, she fancied
it was all a dream. She put her hand in her pocket,
and there, for a certainty, was the box of ointment. She
stripped the clothes off her daughter's leg, rubbed some
of the stuff on it, and in a few seconds she saw the skin
bursting, and a tiny spout of a tea-pot working itself out.
Poor Judy was awake by this, and wondering what ease she
felt in her leg. I warrant she was rejoiced at the story her
mother told her. She soon received health and strength.