e playing
put me in mind of some far thing. It is dreamed
to me, and it is never leaving my mind, that there
is something I remember in the long ago ...
music in a house that was as bright as the moon,
or as the brightest night of stars.

_5th Wrenboy_: Whisht! They are coming!

(_The Princes come back_.)

_1st Prince_: Here are coppers for you.

_2nd Prince_: And white money.

_3rd Prince_: And here is a piece of gold.

_3rd Wrenboy_: We are thankful to you! We'll
bury the Wren in grand style now!

_4th Prince_: Have you far to go?

_1st Wrenboy_: Not very far if it was a straight
road. But it is through the forest we go, beyond
the lake.

_2nd Wrenboy_: We will hardly be there before
the moon rises.

_1st Prince_: Are you afraid in the night time?

_2nd Wrenboy_: I am not. But I've seen a great
deal of strange things at that time.

_2nd Prince_: What sort of things?

_2nd Wrenboy_: Fairies you'd see.

_3rd Prince_: Are there such things?

_2nd Wrenboy_: One night I was attending a pot-still,
roasting oats for to make still-whiskey, and I
seen hares coming out of the wood, by fours and by
sixes, and they as thin as thin....

_3rd Wrenboy_: Hares are the biggest fairies of all.

_4th Wrenboy_: And down by the sea _I_ met a
weasel bringing up a fish in his mouth from the
tide. And I often seen seals there, seals that are
enchanted and look like humans, and will hold up
a hand the same as a Christian.

_5th Wrenboy_: I that saw a hedgehog running
up the side of a mountain as swift as a racehorse.

_1st Wrenboy_: It's the moonlight is the only time!

_1st Prince_: I never saw the moon but through
a window.

_1st Wrenboy_: That's the time to go ramble.
_(He chants_.)
You'll see the crane in the water standing,
And never landing a fish, for fright,
For he can but shiver seeing in the river
His shadow shaking in the bright moonlight.

_2nd Wrenboy_:
Or you may listen to the plover's whistle,
When high above him the wild geese screech;
Or the mallard flying, as the night is dying,
His neck out-stretched towards the salt sea beach.

_3rd Wrenboy_:
When dawn discloses the oak and shows us
The wide sky whitening through the scanty ash,
High in the beeches the furry creatures,
Squirrel and marten lightly pass.

_4th Wrenboy_:
The badger scurries to find his burrow
The rabbit hurries to hide underground.

_5th Wrenboy_:
The pigeon rouses the thrush that drowses,
The woods awaken and