Then Childe Wynd went up to the Laidly Worm and kissed it once; but no
change came over it. Then Childe Wynd kissed it once more; but yet no
change came over it. For a third time he kissed the loathsome thing,
and with a hiss and a roar the Laidly Worm reared back and before
Childe Wynd stood his sister Margaret. He wrapped his cloak about her,
and then went up to the castle with her. When he reached the keep, he
went off to the witch queen's bower, and when he saw her, he touched
her with a twig of a rowan tree. No sooner had he touched her than she
shrivelled up and shrivelled up, till she became a huge ugly toad,
with bold staring eyes and a horrible hiss. She croaked and she
hissed, and then hopped away down the castle steps, and Childe Wynd
took his father's place as king, and they all lived happy afterwards.

But to this day, the loathsome toad is seen at times, haunting the
neighbourhood of Bamborough Keep, and the wicked witch-queen is a
Laidly Toad.



THE CAT AND THE MOUSE

The cat and the mouse
Play'd in the malt-house:

The cat bit the mouse's tail off. "Pray, puss, give me my tail." "No,"
says the cat, "I'll not give you your tail, till you go to the cow,
and fetch me some milk."

First she leapt and then she ran,
Till she came to the cow, and thus began: