any motion of their
own, and they floated on the top of the tide like foam before a breeze.

"Now," said the Fairy, as he led the Dwarf's horse to the edge of the
tide.

The Dwarf urged the horse into the water, and once out of his depth, the
old horse struck out boldly for the island. The sleeping water-steeds
drifted helplessly against him, and in a short time he reached the
island safely, and he neighed joyously as his hoofs touched solid
ground.

The Dwarf rode on and on, until he came to a bridle-path, and following
this, it led him up through winding lanes, bordered with golden furze
that filled the air with fragrance, and brought him to the summit of the
green hills that girdled and looked down on the Mystic Lake. Here the
horse stopped of his own accord, and the Dwarf's heart beat quickly as
his eye rested on the lake, that, clipped round by the ring of hills,
seemed in the breezeless and sunlit air--

"As still as death.
And as bright as life can be."

After gazing at it for a long time, he dismounted, and lay at his ease
in the pleasant grass. Hour after hour passed, but no change came over
the face of the waters; and when the night fell, sleep closed the
eyelids of the Dwarf.

The song of the lark awoke him in the early morning, and, starting up,
he looked at the lake, but its waters were as bright as they had been
the day before.

Toward midday he beheld what he thought was a black cloud sailing across
the sky from east to west. It seemed to grow larger as it came nearer
and nearer, and when it was high above the lake he saw it was a huge
bird, the shadow of whose outstretched wings darkened the waters of the
lake; and the Dwarf knew it was one of the Cormorants of the Western
Seas. As it descended slowly, he saw that it held in one of its claws a
branch of a tree larger than a full-grown oak, and laden with clusters
of ripe red berries. It alighted at some distance from the Dwarf, and,
after resting for a time, it began to eat the berries and to throw the
stones into the lake, and wherever a stone fell a bright red stain
appeared in the water. As he looked more closely at the bird the Dwarf
saw that it had all the signs of old age, and he could not help
wondering how it was able to carry such a heavy tree.

Later in the day, two other birds, as large as the first, but younger,
came up from the west and settled down beside him. They also ate the
berries, and throwing the stones into t