'Ah! does she not!' answered the king quickly. 'Otherwise I
should be hard indeed to please. But will you play a game to-
day?'

'I will,' replied the Gruagach, and they played, and sometimes it
seemed as if one would win, and sometimes the other, but in the
end the king was the winner.

'What is the prize that you will choose?' asked the Gruagach.

'The shaggy young horse with the stick saddle,' answered the
king, but he noticed that the Gruagach held his peace, and his
brow was dark as he led out the horse from the stable. Rough was
its mane and dull was its skin, but the king cared nothing for
that, and throwing his leg over the stick saddle, rode away like
the wind.

On the third morning the king got up as usual before dawn, and as
soon as he had eaten food he prepared to go out, when his wife
stopped him. 'I would rather,' she said, 'that you did not go to
play with the Gruagach, for though twice you have won yet some
day he will win, and then he will put trouble upon you.'

'Oh! I must have one more game,' cried the king; 'just this one.'
And he went off to the house of the Gruagach.

Joy filled the heart of the Gruagach when he saw him coming, and
without waiting to talk they played their game. Somehow or other,
the king's strength and skill had departed from him, and soon the
Gruagach was the victor.