THE BOY WHO KNEW WHAT THE BIRDS SAID
with the mud of the bog, and he started off for the King's Castle.
"Cluck, cluck," said the Hen-grouse, "and did he not go to see his grandmother at all?"
"If he did it's not in the story," said the Cock-grouse. "That very day, as I would have you know, the King was standing outside the gate of his Castle with his powerful captains and his strong-armed guards around him. 'A year it is to-day,' said the King, 'since the Giant came and struck me in the mouth, knocking out and taking away three of my teeth, and since that day I have had neither health nor prosperity. 'And you know,' said he, 'that my daughter and a quarter of my Kingdom is to go to the one who will avenge the insult and
44