“The Potato Supper.” The book of elves and fairies for story-telling and reading aloud and for the children's own reading, Frances Jenkins Olcott, Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin; 1918, pp. 15-19.

Tale Summary

One night, a troop of fairies was dancing together under the moon, when one of them said something which made them all scamper away and hide:

“Cease! Cease with your humming!
Here’s an end to your mumming!
By my smell
I can tell
That a priest is now coming!”

Father Horrigan came by on his pony, stopping at the first house he came across, which belonged to Dermond Leary, a man who was pleased to have his company but troubled that he had nothing but potatoes to offer him. He remembered that he had laid out a net in the river, and there found a fine salmon, but the net was jerked out of his hands and the fish swam away. The fairies revealed themselves as the cause of the trouble and promised there would be a magnificent feast waiting for the priest if only Dermond would ask him a question on their behalf. Although he refused at first, the fairies convinced him that there was no harm in a simple question, the question being whether or not the fairies’ souls would be saved at the Last Day. When Dermond asked Father Horrigan this, the priest questioned on whose behalf he was asking, and he admitted that there were thousands of fairies by the river waiting for an answer. Father Horrigan told him to return to them and say that if they wanted to know, they could ask him themselves. When Dermond gave the fairies the priest’s message, they uttered shrill cries and whisked past him until he was alone. When he returned to his cabin he found the priest and his wife enjoying fresh milk and butter from Dermond’s cow, and potatoes which were steamy and bursting. When Father Horrigan finished eating, he said that he relished the delicious potatoes, more than a dozen fat salmon, and more even than a fairy feast!