ll round
the water. What appeared to be little glow-worms were lying motionless
in groups on the mosses in a still-shadowed region by the side of the
water. From beneath a low arch in the wall, where the water was slowly
flowing away in a river, there came, against stream and wave and wind, a
fishing-boat. Its great red sail was spread, and its pennant shone
silvery blue in the sun. It came alongside a pier of mossy stones, and
cast anchor. From it leapt twelve strong young fishermen, all with
bright faces. They took up the little creatures with the glowing lights,
and carried them aboard; then back again to other groups, until all were
gathered in. For they were all sleeping human forms, close-wrapped in
grave-clothes, but with their light still living, as might be seen by
anyone who had suffered. When all were safe aboard, the men cast off and
the boat disappeared under the arch.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 5: From _How Jonas Found his Enemy: a Romance of the South
Downs_ (1916).]

XV

THE LIANHAN SHEE

By WILL CARLETON

One summer evening Mary Sullivan was sitting at her own well-swept
hearthstone, knitting feet to a pair of sheep's-grey stockings for
Bartley, her husband. It was one of those serene evenings in the month
of June when the decline of day assumes a calmness and repose,
resembling what we might suppose to have irradiated Eden when our first
parents sat in it before their fall. The beams of the sun shone through
the windows in clear shafts of amber light, exhibiting millions of those
atoms which float to the naked eye within its mild radiance. The dog lay
barking in his dream at her feet, and the grey cat sat purring placidly
upon his back, from which even his occasional agitation did not dislodge
her.

Mrs Sullivan was the wife of a wealthy farmer, and niece to the Rev.
Felix O'Rourke; her kitchen was consequently large, comfortable, and
warm. Over where she sat, jutted out the "brace" well lined with bacon;
to the right hung a well-scoured salt-box, and to the left was the jamb,
with its little paneless window to admit the light. Within it hung
several ash rungs, seasoning for flail-sooples, or boulteens, a dozen of
eel-skins, and several stripes of horse-skin, as hangings for them. The
dresser was a "parfit white," and well furnished with the usual
appurtenances. Over the door and on the "threshel" were nailed, "for
luck," two horse-shoes, that had been found by accident. In a little
"hol