` So you think I am a washerman 's donkey ? ' said the monkey to the shark , when the story was ended . ` You are wrong ; I am not . And as the sun is getting low in the sky , it is time for you to begin your homeward journey . You will have a nice cool voyage , and I hope you will find the sultan better . Farewell ! ' And the monkey disappeared among the green branches , and was gone . From ` Swahili Tales , ' by Edward Steere , LL.D . The Fairy Nurse There was once a little farmer and his wife living near Coolgarrow . They had three children , and my story happened while the youngest was a baby . The wife was a good wife enough , but her mind was all on her family and her farm , and she hardly ever went to her knees without falling asleep , and she thought the time spent in the chapel was twice as long as it need be . So , friends , she let her man and her two children go before her one day to Mass , while she called to consult a fairy man about a disorder one of her cows had . She was late at the chapel , and was sorry all the day after , for her husband was in grief about it , and she was very fond of him . Late that night he was wakened up by the cries of his children calling out ` Mother ! Mother ! ' When he sat up and rubbed his eyes , there was no wife by his side , and when he asked the little ones what was become of their mother , they said they saw the room full of nice little men and women , dressed in white and red and green , and their mother in the middle of them , going out by the door as if she was walking in her sleep . Out he ran , and searched everywhere round the house but , neither tale nor tidings did he get of her for many a day . Well , the poor man was miserable enough , for he was as fond of his woman as she was of him . It used to bring the salt tears down his cheeks to see his poor children neglected and dirty , as they often were , and they 'd be bad enough only for a kind neighbour that used to look in whenever she could spare time . The infant was away with a nurse .
About six weeks after -- just as he was going out to his work one morning -- a XXXXX , that used to mind women when they were ill , came up to him , and kept step by step with him to the field , and this is what she told him .
Coolgarrow LL.D Mother Steere Tales There day neighbour night shark