fts and dimities she
washed for her, a hole came just above where her heart would be. Morag
grew pale when she saw that, but she stood steadily and she did not
wail. "Should I go to the King's Castle, fosterer?" said she. "No,"
said the Spae-Woman, "but to the woodman's hut that is near the King's
Castle. And take your Little Red Hen with you, my daughter," said she,
"and do not forget the three presents that the Queen of Senlabor gave
you." Then the Spae-Woman stood up and said the blessing of the journey
over Morag:--

May the Olden
One, whom Fairy
Women nurtured
Through seven ages,
Bring you seven
Waves of fortune.

Morag gave her the clasp of farewell then, and went on her way with the
Little Red Hen under her arm and the three presents that the Queen of
Senlabor gave her in her pouch.

Morag was going and ever going from the blink of day to the mouth of
dark and that for three crossings of the sun, and at last she came
within sight of the Castle of the King of Ireland. She asked a dog-boy
for the hut of MacStairn the Woodman and the hut was shown to her. She
went to it and saw the wife of MacStairn. She told her she was a girl
traveling alone and she asked for shelter. "I can give you shelter,"
said MacStairn's wife, "and I can get you earnings too, for there is
much sewing-work to be done at this time." Morag asked her what reason
there was for that, and the woodman's wife told her there were two
couples in the Castle to be married soon. "One is the youth whom we have
always called the King of Ireland's Son. He is to be married to a maiden
called Fedelma. The other is a youth who is the King's son too, hut
who has been away for a long time. Flann is his name. And he is to be
married to a damsel called Gilveen."

When she heard that, it was as if a knife had been put into and turned
in her heart. She let the Little Red Hen drop from her arm. "I would sew
the garments that the damsel Gilveen is to wear," said she, and she sat
down on the stone outside the woodman's hut. MacStairn's wife then sent
to the Castle to say that there was one in her hut who could sew all the
garments that Gilveen would send her.

The next day, with a servant walking behind, Gilveen came to the
woodman's hut with a basket of cloths and patterns. The basket was left
down and Gilveen began to tell MacStairn's wife how she wanted them cut,
stitched and embroidered. Morag took up the crimson doth and let her
scisso