use I am crying. As many children as these I
should have, and now I am withered, grey, at the end of my life, and I
have not one at all."

"Oh, belike, you will yet have plenty."

I told him all I went through, and I gave him the child in his hand,
and: "These are your other children who were stolen from you, whom I am
giving to you safe. They are gently reared."

When the King heard who they were, he smothered them with kisses and
drowned them with tears, and dried them with fine cloths, silken, and
the hairs of his own head, and so also did their mother, and great was
his welcome for me, as it was I who found them all. And the King said to
me, "I will give you your own child, as it is you who have earned him
best; but you must come to my court every year, and the child with you,
and I will share with you my possessions."

"Oh, I have enough of my own, and after my death I will leave it to the
child."

I spent a time till my visit was over, and I told the King all the
troubles I went through, only I said nothing about my wife. And now you
have the story of the death of Anshgayliacht, the hag's son.

And Morraha thanked Rough Niall for the story, and he struck the ground
with the Sword of Light, and Brown Allree was beside of him and she said
to him, "Sit up, now, riding, and take good heed of yourself," and at
one leap she cleared the sea and at the next the three miles of hill
covered with steel thistles and at the third the three miles of fire,
and then he was home and he told the tale of the death of Anshgayliacht
to the Slender Red Champion and gave him the Sword of Light, and he was
well pleased to get them, and he took the spells of Morraha, and he had
his wife and his castle back again, and by-and-by the five children; but
he never put his hand to card-playing with strangers again.

W. LARMINIE.

(_From "West Irish Folk Tales."_)

The Kildare Pooka

Mr. H---- R----, when he was alive, used to live a good deal in Dublin,
and he was once a great while out of the country on account of the
"ninety-eight" business. But the servants kept on in the big house at
Rath---- all the same as if the family was at home. Well, they used to be
frightened out of their lives, after going to their beds, with the
banging of the kitchen door and the clattering of fire-irons and the
pots and plates and dishes. One evening they sat up ever so long keeping
one another in heart with stories about ghosts and that, when