"Oh, be quick and take me away! Make them give me up to you: ask to have me! I
am your poor, loving old father whom you never saw; all these years have I
been looking and longing for you! Now take me away, for they are a proud,
cruel people, as spiteful as they are small; and my back has been broken
twenty years in their bondage."

The fairies began to look blue, for they hate nothing so much as to give up
one whom they have once held captive. "We can give you gold," said they, "or
precious stones, or the root of long living, or the waters of happiness, or
the sap of youth, or the seed of plenty, or the blossom of beauty. Choose any
of these, and we can give it you."

The old man again caught hold of his son's feet. "Don't choose these," he
whimpered, "choose me!"

So because he had a capful of moonshine in his head, and because the moonbeams
were laying their white hands on his hair, he chose the weak, shrivelled old
man, who crouched and clung to him, imploring not to be let go.

The fairies, for spite and anger, bestowed every one a parting pinch on their
tumble-down old bondsman; then they handed him to his son, and swung back with
careless light hearts to their revels.

As father and son went down the hill together, the old man whistled and piped
like a bird. "Why, why!" he said, "you are a lad of strength and inches: with
you to work and look after me, I can keep on to a merry old age! Ay, ay, I
have had long to wait for it; but wisdom is justified in her children."