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A young man was out walking one day in Erin, leading a stout
cart-horse by the bridle. He was thinking of his mother and how
poor they were since his father, who was a fisherman, had been
drowned at sea, and wondering what he should do to earn a living
for both of them. Suddenly a hand was laid on his shoulder, and a
voice said to him:
'Will you sell me your horse, son of the fisherman?' and looking
up he beheld a man standing in the road with a gun in his hand, a
falcon on his shoulder, and a dog by his side.
'What will you give me for my horse?' asked the youth. 'Will you
give me your gun, and your dog, and your falcon?'
'I will give them,' answered the man, and he took the horse, and
the youth took the gun and the dog and the falcon, and went home
with them. But when his mother heard what he had done she was
very angry, and beat him with a stick which she had in her hand.
'That will teach you to sell my property,' said she, when her arm
was quite tired, but Ian her son answered her nothing, and went
off to his bed, for he was very sore.
That night he rose softly, and left the house carrying the gun
with him. 'I will not stay here to be beaten,' thought he, and he
walked and he walked and he walked, till it was day again, and he
was hungry and looked about him to see if he could get anything
to eat. Not very far off was a farm-house, so he went there, and
knocked at the door, and the farmer and his wife begged him to
come in, and share their breakfast.
'Ah, you have a gun,' said the farmer as the young man placed it
in a corner. 'That is well, for a deer comes every evening to eat
my corn, and I cannot catch it. It is fortune that has sent you
to me.'
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Fairytales 
