Сборник лучших английских сказок. Уровень 1

’ �Stop for me while I go; it is a cold frosty night,’ said William, �you’d be catching your death.’ So the girl waited long enough to take her feathers out and say, �By power of my three feathers may the clothes slash and blow about till morning, and may William neither be able to take his hand from them nor gather them up[60 - gather up – подбирать].’ And then she was away to bed and to sleep.

The coachman did not want to be laughed at, and he said nothing. So after a while, the footman[61 - footman – лакей] comes to her and said: �I have been with my master for years and have saved up[62 - save up – скопить] a good bit, and you have been three years here, and must have saved up as well.

Let us put it together, and make us a home or else stay on at service as you wish.’ Well, she got him to bring the savings to her as the others had, and then she pretended she was faint, and said to him: �James, I don’t feel well, run down for me and fetch me up a drop of brandy. ’ Now no sooner had he started than she said: �By power of my three feathers may there be slashing and spilling, and James neither be able to pour the brandy straight nor take his hand from it until morning.’

And so it was. James could not get his glass filled, and there was slashing and spilling, and also down came the master to know what it meant! So James told him he could not make it out, but he could not get the drop of brandy the laundry-maid had asked for, and his hand would shake and spill everything.

When the master got back to his wife he said: �What has come over[63 - come over – найти (на кого-либо)] the men, they were all right until that laundry-maid came. Something is up now. They have all drawn out[64 - draw out – вытягивать] their pay, and yet they don’t leave, and what can it be anyway?’

But his wife said she could not hear of the laundry-maid being blamed, for she was the best servant she had and worth all the rest put together.

So it went on until one day as the girl stood in the hall door, the coachman happened to say to the footman: �Do you know how that girl served me, James?’ And then William told about the clothes. The butler put in, �That was nothing to what she served me,’ and he told of the shutters clapping all night.