“’Tis a deal for me to have this much itself,” said Fin. “I have saved half of my master’s property. If ye want food, ye will get it at Fin’s house. I will show the way; but first let me see will fire burn you.”
“Very well; we will make a great fire, and go into it; we’ll stay in the fire till the wood is burned down, and then rise out of it as well as ever.”
There were many trees in the country at that time. The giants and Fin were not long making a great pile of dry limbs and logs. When the pile was finished, the giants sat on the top of it, and Fin brought fire. The flames rose as high as the tree-tops.
“’Tis too hot here for me,” said Fin.
“This is pleasant for us,” said the giants; and they laughed as Fin went from the heat.
Fin could not come within ten perches of the fire. It burned all day, and the blaze of it was seen all the following night. In the afternoon of the next day, the pile had burned down, and the three giants were sitting at their ease on the hot coals.
“Fire does not harm us; you see that,” said the giants.
“I do, indeed,” said Fin; “and now ye may go to Fin’s house for refreshment.”
Fin showed them a long road, hurried home himself by a short one, and gave command to the Fenians to scatter through Erin, and escape. Then, turning to his mother, he said, “Make three cakes for the giants, put iron griddles in the middle of them, and bake them a little in the ashes. You will give these to the giants to eat. You will say that they are soft, not well baked; that we complain when the bread is not hard. I will lie down in the dark corner, in that big box there. Do you bind my head and face with a cloth, and say, when the giants are eating, ‘This poor child is sick; I think his teeth are coming.’”