him to bed.

The next morning she called him to breakfast. When he had finished eating,
she gave him a ball of thread and told him to follow it as before.

The prince followed it through field and over common, hurrying faster and
faster every minute, until late on the following evening, when it stopped
at the door of a hut that stood at the foot of a hill. A candle sputtered
in the window as if to welcome him. A witch, more homely than the others,
stood by the fire making porridge.

She greeted the prince as her sisters had done, bade him wash his face and
hands, gave him his supper, and sent him to bed. On the following morning
after breakfast she gave him a ball of thread and said:

"Son of the Prince of Erin, you have lost your head to the Giant of Loch
Lein, who lives near by in a great castle surrounded by spikes. Some day
you will lose your head to his daughter. Follow this ball of thread to the
lake behind the castle. When you reach the lake at midday, the ball will be
unwound. In a few minutes more the daughters of the cruel Giant of Loch
Lein will come to the lake to bathe. Their names are Blue Lily, White Lily,
and Yellow Lily. The latter is the wisest and most beautiful of the three.
Steal her clothing and do not give it up until she promises to help you,
for she is the only person in the world that can outwit the Giant of Loch
Lein."

The prince thanked the witch for her advice, and followed the ball of
thread to the Castle of Spikes, which was a dark, gloomy building hidden
from view by great trees. When he reached the lake behind the castle, the
ball of thread vanished.

He stood for a time looking at the lake, which looked like a brilliant
turquoise in the sunshine. Presently he heard girlish shouts of laughter.
He concealed himself behind a clump of bushes where he could see without
being seen. Three beautiful girls came tripping down to the edge of the
water, where they stopped to look all about them.

It was very easy for the prince to make out their names. The tallest one,
who wore a gown of pale blue, had eyes as blue as the skies above; he knew
that she must be Blue Lily.

One of them was so fair that she looked as though she were carved from
marble; he was sure that she was White Lily. But Yellow Lily was small and
slender, with hair that shone like gold in the sunlight. She was
wonderfully graceful and beautiful.

Yellow Lily threw off her robe of spun gold and stood dressed in a bathing