nn talked about the Pooka and his fierce horse.
On Sowain night--the night before the real short days begin--the Pooka
rides through the countryside touching any fruit that remains, so that
it may bring no taste into winter. The blackberries that were good
to eat the day before are no good on November day, because the Pooka
touched them the night before. What else the Pooka does no one really
knows. He is a timid fellow as the Little Red Hen said, and he hopes
that the sight of his big black horse and the sound of its trampling and
panting as he rides by will frighten people out of his way, for he has a
great fear of being seen.

The next day the Little Red Hen stayed in the courtyard until Crom Duv
left with his herd. Flann followed her. She went here and there between
the house and the wall at the back, now picking a grain of sand and
now an ant or spider or fly. And as she went about the Little Red Hen
murmured a song to herself:--

When sleep would settle on me
Like the wild bird down on the nest,
The wind comes out of the West:
It tears at the door, maybe,
And frightens away my rest--
When sleep would come upon me
Like the wild bird down on the nest.

The cock is aloft with his crest:
The barn-owl comes from her quest
She fixes an eye upon me
And frightens away my rest
When sleep would settle on me
Like the wild bird down on its nest.

Flann watched all the Little Red Hen did. He saw her put her head on
one side and look down for a while at a certain herb that grew near the
ground. Flann plucked that herb and brought it to Morag.

The cattle had come home, but Crom Duv was not with them. Morag milked
the cows and brought all the milk within, leaving no milk for the cats
to drink outside. Six came into the kitchen to get their supper there.
One after another they sprang up on the table, one more proud and
overbearing than the other. Each cat ate without condescending to make
a single mew. "Cat of my heart," said Morag to the first, when he had
finished drinking his milk. "Cat of my heart! How noble you would look
with this red around your neck." She held out a little satchel in which
a bit of the herb was sewn. The first cat gave a look that said, "Well,
you may put it on me." Morag put the red satchel around his neck and he
jumped off the table.

It was so with all the other cats. They finished lapping their milk and
Morag showed them the red ribbon satchel. They l