on the tree, and they broke the third root, and the tree fell on her
elbow. Then I gave the third shout. The stalwart men hastened, and
when they saw how the cats served the tree, they began at them with
the spades; and they themselves and the cats began at each other,
till the cats ran away. And surely, oh king, I did not move till I
saw the last one of them off. And then I came home. And there's the
hardest case in which I ever was; and it seems to me that tearing by
the cats were harder than hanging to-morrow by the king of
Lochlann."

"Och! Conall," said the king, "you are full of words. You have freed
the soul of your son with your tale; and if you tell me a harder
case than that you will get your second youngest son, and then you
will have two sons."

"Well then," said Conall, "on condition that thou dost that, I will
tell thee how I was once in a harder case than to be in thy power in
prison to-night."

"Let's hear," said the king.

"I was then," said Conall, "quite a young lad, and I went out
hunting, and my father's land was beside the sea, and it was rough
with rocks, caves, and rifts. When I was going on the top of the
shore, I saw as if there were a smoke coming up between two rocks,
and I began to look what might be the meaning of the smoke coming up
there. When I was looking, what should I do but fall; and the place
was so full of heather, that neither bone nor skin was broken. I
knew not how I should get out of this. I was not looking before me,
but I kept looking overhead the way I came--and thinking that the