“‘He had brought them,’ he said, ‘some meat on a bone:
They were welcome to pick it or leave it alone.’”
The fairies were very attentive to this song; they seemed, if one may judge by their looks, to think it was rather a serious one. Then they drank Jack’s health, and afterwards looked at him as if they expected him to sing too; but as he did not begin, he presently heard them whispering, and one asking another, “Do you think he knows manners?”
So he thought he had better try what he could do, and he stood up and sang a song that he had often heard his nurse sing in the nursery at home.
“One morning, oh! so early, my beloved, my beloved.
All the birds were singing blithely, as if never they would cease;
’Twas a thrush sang in my garden, ‘Hear the story, hear the story!’
And the lark sang, ‘Give us glory!’
And the dove said, ‘Give us peace!’
“Then I listened, oh! so early, my beloved, my beloved,