happybat

"Is it that one again? Very well," said the old woman. "Once upon a time there was a king and he was walking by his palace wall when who should he see but a young man passing by, and the young man held in his hand a silver branch - all right, all right," the woman interrupted herself as though she had been corrected, "a silver bough. He held in his hand a silver bough, and it was the branch of an apple tree, and from it hung nine golden apples, and when he shook the branch the nine golden apples hit against each other, and made the sweetest music the king had ever heard in all his life. So sweet was the music that the king forgot all his cares, and they departed from his mind, and he thought the world was fresh and beautiful. The king asked the young man if he would sell the branch to him, and the young man said he would, but if so it would not be for money he would sell it. What would it be for? asked the king. And the young man said it will be for your wife and your son and your little young daughter, and so it was agreed between them, and the king got the silver bough. But when the king went and told his wife and his son and his little young daughter what he had done, then they were very sad, for they liked being with the king in the palace and didn't want to go away. It was the sadness that came upon them then, but in the middle of it what should the king do but shake the silver bough, and the sweet music sang from it again, and all sadness and sorrow departed, and the king's wife and his son and his little young daughter went willingly away with the young man. Now it was all right for a time, and for another time, because the king had his silver bough, but by the end of a year and a day he was missing his wife and his son and his little young daughter, and missing them very much he was, and soon he could not do without them any more, and so he set off to find them. Off he went, and on and far away, and when at last he was very tired, a cloud came about him like the darkness and he fell into a deep sleep. Then he awoke and lo! there was a palace and a wonderful palace it was, set on a great dim plain, and he went into the palace and who should he meet but Mananan himself, the one who looks after the seas of the world - for wasn't it Mananan who had come in disguise as the young man with the silver bough in his hand. So the king knew he was on the right track now, and he spoke to Mananan, and to Mananan's wife, for she was there also, and told why he had come. And they understood that, for they were not bad people but only the great ones who can do what they like, except for the one thing they mustn't ever do, not even the greatest though he is a king itself or a lord of the seas, and that is he must never be unkind to the stranger who enters at his door. So they listened to the king and nodded and gave an order to the palace servant, and soon walking down the great stair towards them came the king's wife and his son and his little young daughter, and right glad he was to see them, but no gladder than they were to see him. Well, at last the time came for them to go to sleep, and to sleep they went in Mananan's palace, for what would anyone be without sleep? And then - and then - the morning came, and lo! there was no Mananan's palace, it had all vanished away, and the great dim plain had vanished away, too, and where were they but back once more in their own palace, all of them together, as if they had never left it, but behold! hanging on the wall in the morning sunlight was the silver bough with the nine golden apples on it."
     "That place where the palace of Mananan vanished away, was it like a moor and stones on it?"
     "It was a bare moor and there were not stones on it as far as ever I heard."
     "Granny - sing the song of the Silver Bough."

The Silver Bough, by Neil Gunn