“Ah, tell me how I may do that!” cried the orphan girl, “and not a moment will I lose in setting about my part in the matter, though I should have to make the circuit of the four dioceses upon my bare knees.”
“Well, then, there are two things to be done,” said the korandon. “The first, to present thyself before the Groac’h as a young man; and the next, to take from her the steel net which she carries at her girdle, and shut her up in it till the day of judgment.”
“And where shall I get a suit of clothes to fit me, korandon?”
And with these words the little dwarf pulled out four hairs from his foxy poll, and blew them to the winds, muttering something in an under-tone, and lo, the four hairs became four tailors, of whom the first held in his hand a cabbage, the second a pair of scissors, the third a needle, and the last a smoothing goose. All the four seated themselves cross-legged round the nest, and began to prepare a suit of clothes for Bellah.
Out of one cabbage-leaf they made a beautiful coat, laced at every seam; of another they made a waistcoat; but it took two leaves for the trunk-breeches, such as are worn in the country of Léon; lastly, the heart of the cabbage was shaped into a hat, and the stalk was converted into shoes.
Thus equipped, Bellah would have passed any where for a handsome young gentleman in green velvet lined with white satin.
She thanked the korandon, who added some further instructions; and then her great bird flew away with her straight to the Isle of Lok. There she commanded him to resume the form of a crab-stick; and entering the swan-shaped boat, arrived safely at the Groac’h’s palace.
The fairy was quite taken at first sight with the velvet-clad young Léonard.
“Well,” quoth she to herself, “you are the best-looking young fellow that has ever come to see me; and I do think I shall love you for three times three days.”