“‘A salmon,’ ses she.
“‘Thank heavens,’ ses he. ‘That same is a consolation.’
“‘Things are never so bad that a woman can’t make them worse. And things might be much better.’
“‘Howsomever,’ ses he, ‘I think that ’tis a piece of gross injustice to change me from a respectable man into a fish, moreover when I am head and ears in love with King Lir’s lovely daughter Fionnuala.’
“‘Lir’s lovely daughter was turned into a swan last night,’ ses she. ‘But ’tis better to have loved and lost inself than to be kept awake at night by squalling children who won’t thank you when they grow up for all you had to endure on their account. And who would want to provide for a large wife and a large family unless he might have plenty money,’ ses she.
“‘Is it the truth you are telling about the children of Lir?’ ses he.
“‘’Twill soon be a recorded fact in history,’ ses she.
“And as the words fell from her lips, tears fell from his eyes, and he wept and wept until the water reached his chin, and then with one wave of the magic wand he was turned into a salmon, but he still continued to weep and weep until the waters rose above the highest steeple in the town of Laurna, and there he lived swimming about in his own tears, until I caught him when fishing for bream on a summer’s evening some five and twenty years ago,” said Padna.
“And what did you say to him when he told you that yarn?” said Micus.
“I said that I thought he should have been more upset about his own fate than that of Lir’s lovely daughter.