"Goo you and bring the best of 'em."
"Best or worst," says the gal, "I've ate 'em all, and you can't ha' one
till that's come agin."
Well, the woman she were wholly bate, and she took her spinnin' to the
door to spin, and as she span she sang:
"My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day--
My darter ha' ate five, five pies to-day."
The king, he were a comin' down the street and he hard her sing, but
what she sang he couldn't hare, so he stopped and said:
"What were that you was a singin of, woman?"
The woman, she were ashamed to let him hare what her darter had been
a-doin', so she sang, 'stids o' that:
"My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day--
My darter ha' spun five, five skeins to-day."
"S'ars o' mine!" said the king, "I never heerd tell of any one as could
do that."
Then he said: "Look you here, I want a wife, and I'll marry your darter.
But look you here," says he, "'leven months out o' the year she shall
have all the vittles she likes to eat, and all the gownds she likes to
git, and all the cumpny she likes to hev; but the last month o' the year
she'll ha' to spin five skeins iv'ry day, an' if she doon't, I shall
kill her."
"All right," says the woman; for she thowt what a grand marriage that
was. And as for them five skeins, when te come tew, there'd be plenty o'
ways of gettin' out of it, and likeliest, he'd ha' forgot about it.
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