"I came from Geeogan, and I came from Cooaigean, and I came from the slab of the bonnach stone, and I came from the eye of the quern, and I will come from thee if I may," quoth the little bonnach.
"Well, I myself will take thee over on my back," said the fox.
"Thou'lt eat me, thou'lt eat me," quoth the little bonnach.
"Come then on the tip of my tail," said the fox.
"Oh no! I will not; thou wilt eat me," said the little bonnach.
"I will not go; thou wilt eat me," said the little bonnach.
"Thou wilt eat me that way at all events," said the little bonnach.
"Oh no, I will not eat thee," said the fox. "When I am swimming I cannot eat anything at all."
"Oh! ho!" said the fox, "I may do my own pleasure on thee now. It was long ago said that a hard morsel is no good in the mouth."
The fox ate the little bonnach. Then he went to a loch, and he caught hold of a duck that was in it, and he ate that.
He went up to a hillside, and he began to stroke his sides on the hill.
"Oh, king! how finely a bullet would spank upon my rib just now."
"I'll try that upon thee directly," said the hunter.
"Bad luck to this place," quoth the fox, "in which a creature dares not say a word in fun that is not taken in earnest."
The hunter put a bullet in his gun, and he fired at him and killed him, and that was the end of the Russet Dog.
Long ago there lived in Erin a woman who married a man of high degree and had one daughter. Soon after the birth of the daughter the husband died.
The woman was not long a widow when she married a second time, and had two daughters. These two daughters hated their half-sister, thought she was not so wise as another, and nicknamed her Smallhead. When the elder of the two sisters was fourteen years old their father died. The mother was in great grief then, and began to pine away. She used to sit at home in the corner and never left the house. Smallhead was kind to her mother, and the mother was fonder of her eldest daughter than of the other two, who were ashamed of her.
At last the two sisters made up in their minds to kill their mother. One day, while their half-sister was gone, they put the mother in a pot, boiled her, and threw the bones outside. When Smallhead came home there was no sign of the mother.