“Why, then, be easy about it,” said Mick, “till I tell it you.” And putting the bottle on the table, he added, “That’s all I got for the cow.”
His poor wife was thunderstruck. She sat crying, while Mick told her his story, with many a crossing and blessing between him and harm. She could not help believing him, for she had great faith in Fairies. So she got up, and, without saying a word, began to sweep the earthen floor with a bunch of heather. Then she tidied everything, and put the long table in the middle of the room, and spread over it a clean cloth.
And then Mick, placing the bottle on the ground, said: “Bottle, do your duty!”
“Look! Look there, mammy!” cried his eldest son. “Look there! Look there!” and he sprang to his mother’s side, as two tiny fellows rose like light from the bottle; and in an instant they covered the table with dishes and plates of gold and silver, full of the finest victuals that ever were seen. And when all was done, the two tiny fellows went into the bottle again.
Mick and his wife looked at everything with astonishment; they had never seen such dishes and plates before, and the very sight of them almost took their appetites away. But at length Molly said:—
“Come and sit down, Mick, and try to eat a bit. Sure, you ought to be hungry, after such a good day’s work!”
So they all sat down at the table. After they had eaten as much as they wished, Molly said:—
“I wonder will those two good, little gentlemen carry away these fine things.”
They waited, but no one came; so Molly put the dishes and plates carefully aside. The next day Mick went to Cork and sold some of them, and bought a horse and cart.
Weeks passed by, and the neighbours saw that Mick was making money; and, though he and his wife did all they could to keep the bottle a secret, their landlord soon found out about it. Then he took the bottle by force away from Mick, and carried it carefully home.