and her two children go before her
one day to Mass, while she called to consult a fairy man about a
disorder one of her cows had. She was late at the chapel, and was sorry
all the day after, for her husband was in grief about it, and she was
very fond of him.

Late that night he was wakened up by the cries of his children calling
out, 'Mother! mother!' When he sat up and rubbed his eyes, there was no
wife by his side, and when he asked the little ones what was become of
their mother, they said they saw the room full of nice little men and
women, dressed in white and red and green, and their mother in the
middle of them, going out by the door as if she was walking in her
sleep. Out he ran, and searched everywhere round the house, but neither
tale nor tidings did he get of her for many a day.

Well, the poor man was miserable enough, for he was as fond of his woman
as she was of him. It used to bring the salt tears down his cheeks to
see his poor children neglected and dirty, as they often were, and
they'd be bad enough only for a kind neighbour that used to look in
whenever she could spare time. The infant was away with a nurse.

[Illustration: The Fairies go off with the Farmer's Wife]

About six weeks after--just as he was going out to his work one
morning--a neighbour, that used to mind women when they were ill, came
up to him, and kept step by step with him to the field, and this is what
she told him.

'Just as I was falling asleep last night, I heard a horse's tramp on the
grass and a knock at the door, and there, when I came out, was a
fine-looking dark man, mounted on a black horse, and he told me to get
ready in all haste, for a lady was in great want of me. As soon as I put
on my cloak and things, he took me by the hand, and I was sitting behind
him before I felt myself stirring. "Where are we going, sir?" says I.
"You'll soon know," says he; and he drew his fingers across my eyes, and
not a ray could I see. I kept a tight grip of him, and I little knew
whether he was going backwards or forwards, or how long we were about
it, till my hand was taken again, and I felt the ground under me. The
fingers went the other way across my eyes, and there we were before a
castle door, and in we went through a big hall and great rooms all
painted in fine green colours, with red and gold bands and ornaments,
and the finest carpets and chairs and tables and window curtains, and
grand ladies and gentlemen walking about. At