led him up through winding lanes, bordered with golden furze
that filled the air with fragrance, and brought him to the summit of the
green hills that girdled and looked down on the Mystic Lake. Here the
horse stopped of his own accord, and the dwarf's heart beat quickly as
his eye rested on the lake, that, clipped round by the ring of hills,
seemed in the breezeless and sunlit air--

"As still as death.
And as bright as life can be."

After gazing at it for a long time, he dismounted, and lay at his ease
in the pleasant grass. Hour after hour passed, but no change came over
the face of the waters, and when the night fell sleep closed the eyelids
of the dwarf.

The song of the lark awoke him in the early morning, and, starting up,
he looked at the lake, but its waters were as bright as they had been
the day before.

Towards midday he beheld what he thought was a black cloud sailing
across the sky from east to west. It seemed to grow larger as it came
nearer and nearer, and when it was high above the lake he saw it was
a huge bird, the shadow of whose outstretched wings darkened the waters
of the lake; and the dwarf knew it was one of the Cormorants of the
Western Seas. As it descended slowly, he saw that it held in one of its
claws a branch of a tree larger than a full-grown oak, and laden with
clusters of ripe red berries. It alighted at some distance from the
dwarf, and, after resting for a time, it began to eat the berries and to
throw the stones into the lake, and wherever a stone fell a bright red
stain appeared in the water. As he looked more closely at the bird the
dwarf saw that it had all the signs of old age, and he could not help
wondering how it was able to carry such a heavy tree.

Later in the day, two other birds, as large as the first, but younger,
came up from the west and settled down beside him. They also ate the
berries, and throwing the stones into the lake it was soon as red as
wine.

When they had eaten all the berries, the young birds began to pick the
decayed feathers off the old bird and to smooth his plumage. As soon as
they had completed their task, he rose slowly from the hill and sailed
out over the lake, and dropping down on the waters, dived beneath them.
In a moment he came to the surface, and shot up into the air with a
joyous cry, and flew off to the west in all the vigor of renewed youth,
followed by the other birds.

When they had gone so far that they were like s