the
loch, and let you have it done before the sun goes down in the evening."
He went away from him then.

The King's son began working, but the stones were stuck to one another
so fast that he was not able to raise one of them, and if he were to be
working until this day, there would not be one stone out of the castle.
He sat down then, thinking what he ought to do, and it was not long
until the daughter of the old King came to him and said, "What is the
cause of your grief?" He told her the work which he had to do. "Let that
put no grief on you; I will do it," said she. Then she gave him bread,
meat, and wine, pulled out a little enchanted rod, struck a blow on the
old castle, and in a moment every stone of it was at the bottom of the
lake. "Now," said she, "do not tell my father that it was I who did the
work for you."

When the sun was going down in the evening, the old King came and said,
"I see that you have your day's work done."

"I have," said the King's son; "I can do any work at all."

The old King thought now that the King's son had great powers of
enchantment, and he said to him, "Your day's work for to-morrow is to
lift the stones out of the loch, and to set up the castle again as it
was before."

He brought the King's son home, and said to him, "Go to sleep in the
place where you were last night."

When the old King went to sleep the young daughter came and brought him
into the fine chamber, and kept him there till the old King was about to
rise in the morning. Then she put him out again in the fork of the tree.

At sunrise the old King came and said, "It's time for you to get to
work."

"There's no hurry on me at all," says the King's son, "because I know I
can readily do my day's work."

He then went to the brink of the lake, but he was not able to see a
stone, the water was that black. He sat down on a rock, and it was not
long until Finnuala--that was the name of the old King's daughter--came
to him and said, "What have you to do to-day?" He told her, and she
said, "Let there be no grief on you. I can do that work for you." Then
she gave him bread, beef, mutton, and wine. After that she drew out the
little enchanted rod, smote the water of the lake with it, and in a
moment the old castle was set up as it had been the day before. Then she
said to him, "On your life, don't tell my father that I did this work
for you, or that you have any knowledge of me at all."

On the evening of that day