“‘You must go out into the wide world and seek your fortune, for I can keep you no longer,’ says the Mother.
“‘Mother, I will,’ says he.
“‘And will you take a big cake with my curse or a little cake with my blessing?’
“‘A little cake,’ says he.
“So she baked it for him and gave him her blessing, and he went away, and she a-weeping after him fine and loud. And by and by he came to the same spring in the woods where the bad son was before him, and the small, little bird sat again on the side of it.
“‘Give me a bit of your cakeen for my little ones in the nest,’ says she.
“‘I will,’ says the good son, and he broke her off a fine piece, and she dipped her beak in the spring and turned it into sweet wine; and when he bit into his cake, sure, it was turned into fine plum-cake entirely; and he ate and drank and went on light-hearted. And next day he comes to the farmer’s house.
“‘Will ye tend the cows for me?’ says the farmer.
“‘I will,’ says the good son.
“‘Be wise,’ says the farmer’s wife, ‘for the clover-field beyond is belonging to a giant, and if you leave in the cows, he will kill you dead.’