pass. Then he left her at a great house to be laundry-maid for seven
years and a day.

And the girl used to take the feathers and say:

"By virtue of my three feathers may the copper be lit, and the clothes
washed, and mangled, and folded, and put away to the missus's
satisfaction."

And then she had no more care about it. The feathers did the rest, and
the lady set great store by her for a better laundress she had never
had. Well, one day the butler, who had a notion to have the pretty
laundry-maid for his wife, said to her, he should have spoken before but
he did not want to vex her. "Why should it when I am but a
fellow-servant?" the girl said. And then he felt free to go on, and
explain he had £70 laid by with the master, and how would she like him
for a husband.

And the girl told him to fetch her the money, and he asked his master
for it, and brought it to her. But as they were going upstairs, she
cried, "O John, I must go back, sure I've left my shutters undone, and
they'll be slashing and banging all night."

The butler said, "Never you trouble, I'll put them right." and he ran
back, while she took her feathers, and said: "By virtue of my three
feathers may the shutters slash and bang till morning, and John not be
able to fasten them nor yet to get his fingers free from them."

And so it was. Try as he might the butler could not leave hold, nor yet
keep the shutters from blowing open as he closed them. And he _was_