“Do you see anything now?” asked the Bull.
“Yes, I see a little castle far, far away”, said the Princess.
“That’s not so little though”, said the Bull.
After a long, long time, they came to a great cairn, where there was a spur of the fell that stood sheer across the way.
“Do you see anything now?” asked the Bull.
“Yes, now I see the castle close by”, said the King’s daughter, “and now it is much, much bigger.”
“Thither you’re to go”, said the Bull. “Right underneath the castle is a pig-sty, where you are to dwell. When you come thither you’ll find a wooden cloak, all made of strips of lath; that you must put on, and go up to the castle and say your name is ‘Katie Woodencloak’, and ask for a place. But before you go, you must take your penknife and cut my head off, and then you must flay me, and roll up the hide, and lay it under the wall of rock yonder, and under the hide you must lay the copper leaf, and the silver leaf, and the golden apple. Yonder, up against the rock, stands a stick; and when you want anything, you’ve only got to knock on the wall of rock with that stick.”
At first she wouldn’t do anything of the kind; but when the Bull said it was the only thanks he would have for what he had done for her, she couldn’t help herself. So, however much it grieved her heart, she hacked and cut away with her knife at the big beast till she got both his head and his hide off, and then she laid the hide up under the wall of rock, and put the copper leaf, and the silvern leaf, and the golden apple inside it.
So when she had done that, she went over to the pig-sty, but all the while she went she sobbed and wept. There she put on the wooden cloak, and so went up to the palace. When she came into the kitchen she begged for a place, and told them her name was Katie Woodencloak. Yes, the cook said she might have a place—she might have leave to be there in the scullery, and wash up, for the lassie who did that work before had just gone away.
“But as soon as you get weary of being here, you’ll go your way too, I’ll be bound.”