horse. With a light heart he swam back
over the lake, and nowhere could he see the black Cormorants of the
Western Seas, but three white swans floating abreast followed him to
the bank. When he reached the bank he galloped down to the sea, and
crossed to the shore.

Then he flung the reins upon his horse's neck, and swifter than the
wind the gallant horse swept on and on, and it was not long until he
was bounding over the enchanted moor. Wherever his hoofs struck the
ground, grass and flowers sprang up, and great trees with leafy
branches rose on every side.

At last the knight reached the little hut. Three times he struck the
shield with the haft and three times with the blade of his spear. At
the last blow the hut disappeared, and standing before him was the
little princess.

The knight took her in his arms and kissed her; then he lifted her on
to the horse, and, leaping up before her, he turned towards the north,
to the palace of the Red Branch Knights, and as they rode on beneath
the leafy trees from every tree the birds sang out, for the spell of
silence over the lonely moor was broken for ever.

THE HOUSE IN THE LAKE.[2]

A long, long time ago there lived in a little hut, in the midst of one
of the inland lakes of Erin, an old fisherman and his son. The hut was
built on stakes driven into the bed of the lake, and was so high above
the waters that even when they were stirred into waves by the wind
coming down from the mountains they did not reach the threshold of the
door. Around, outside the hut, on a level with the floor, was a little
wicker-work platform, and under the platform, close to the steps
leading up to it from the water, the fisherman's curragh, made of
willows, covered with skins, was moored, and it was only by means of
the curragh that he and his son, Enda, could leave their lake
dwelling.

On many a summer evening Enda lay stretched on the platform, watching
the sunset fading from the mountain-tops, and the twilight creeping
over the waters of the lake, and it chanced that once when he was so
engaged he heard a rustle in a clump of sedge that grew close to one
side of the hut. He turned to where the sound came from, and what
should he see but an otter swimming towards him, with a little trout
in his mouth. When the otter came up to where Enda was lying, he
lifted his head and half his body from the water, and flung the trout
on the platform, almost at Enda's feet, and then disappeared