'I wish,' says the smith, 'I could do it; but I was looking at
the crowns after the princesses got home, and I don't think
there's a black or a white smith on the face of the earth that
could imitate them.' 'Faint heart never won fair lady,' says the
prince. 'Go to the palace and ask for a quarter of a pound of
gold, a quarter of a pound of silver, and a quarter of a pound of
copper. Get one crown for a pattern, and my head for a pledge,
I'll give you out the very things that are wanted in the
morning.' 'Are you in earnest?' says the smith. 'Faith, I am so,'
says he. 'Go! you can't do worse than lose.'

To make a long story short, the smith got the quarter of a pound
of gold, and the quarter of a pound of silver, and the quarter of
a pound of copper, and gave them and the pattern crown to the
prince. He shut the forge door at nightfall, and the neighbours
all gathered in the yard, and they heard him hammering,
hammering, hammering, from that to daybreak; and every now and
then he'd throw out through the window bits of gold, silver, and
copper; and the idlers scrambled for them, and cursed one
another, and prayed for the good luck of the workman.

Well, just as the sun was thinking to rise, he opened the door,
and brought out the three crowns he got from his true love, and
such shouting and huzzaing as there was! The smith asked him to
go along with him to the palace, but he refused; so off set the
smith, and the whole townland with him; and wasn't the king
rejoiced when he saw the crowns! 'Well,' says he to the smith,
'you're a married man. What's to be done?' 'Faith, your majesty,
I didn't make them crowns at all. It was a big fellow that took