'Well, if you must, you must, I suppose,' answered the wizard;
'but if you win that game, ask as a prize the ugly crop-headed
girl that stands behind the door.'

'I will,' said the king.

So before the sun rose he got up and went to the house of the
Gruagach, who was sitting outside.

'O king, what has brought you here to-day?' asked the Gruagach.
'But right welcome you are, and more welcome will you be still if
you will play a game with me.'

'That is just what I want,' said the king, and they played; and
sometimes it seemed as if one would win, and sometimes the other,
but in the end it was the king who was the winner.

'And what is the prize that you will choose?' inquired the
Gruagach.

'The ugly crop-headed girl that stands behind the door,' replied
the king.

'Why, there are twenty others in the house, and each fairer than
she!' exclaimed the Gruagach.

'Fairer they may be, but it is she whom I wish for my wife, and
none other,' and the Gruagach saw that the king's mind was set
upon her, so he entered his house, and bade all the maidens in it