“Kiss me, you lassie!”
“Yes, I’ll kiss you”, said the lassie, and she did it too, though she thought it the worst work she had ever had to do in her life.
Then the heads began to chatter together, and each asked what they should do for the lassie who was so kind and gentle.
“That she be the prettiest lassie in the world, and as fair as the bright day”, said the first head.
“That gold shall drop from her hair, every time she brushes it”, said the second head.
“That gold shall fall from her mouth every time she speaks”, said the third head.
So when the lassie came home looking so lovely, and beaming as the bright day itself, her stepmother and her stepsister got more and more cross, and they got worse still when she began to talk, and they saw how golden guineas fell from her mouth. As for the stepmother, she got so mad with rage, she chased the lassie into the pigsty. That was the right place for all her gold stuff, but as for coming into the house, she wouldn’t hear of it.
Well, it wasn’t long before the stepmother wished her own daughter to go to the burn to fetch water. So when she came to the water’s edge with her buckets, up popped the first head.
“Wash me, you lassie”, it said.
“The Deil wash you”, said the stepdaughter.