me out to see who was there. Seeing a stranger on
horseback, he asked what brought him there and where he was going.

'I have lived here,' said he, 'for three hundred years, and all that
time I have not seen a single human being but yourself.'

'I have been going about for the last three years,' said the Irishman,
'to see if I could find anyone who can tell me where the Blue
Mountains are.'

'Come in,' said the old man, 'and stay with me all night. I have a
book which contains the history of the world, which I shall go through
to-night, and if there is such a place as the Blue Mountains in it we
shall find it out.'

The Irishman stayed there all night, and as soon as morning came rose
to go. The old man said he had not gone to sleep all night for going
through the book, but there was not a word about the Blue Mountains in
it. 'But I'll tell you what,' he said, 'if there is such a place on
earth at all, I have a brother who lives nine hundred miles from here,
and he is sure to know where they are, if anyone in this world does.'
The Irishman answered that he could never go these nine hundred miles,
for his horse was giving in already. 'That doesn't matter,' said the
old man; 'I can do better than that. I have only to blow my whistle
and you will be at my brother's house before nightfall.'

So he blew the whistle, and the Irishman did not know where on earth
he was until he found himself at the other old man's door, who also
told him that it was three hundred years since he had seen anyone, and
asked him where he was going.

'I am going to see if I can find anyone that can tell me where the
Blue Mountains are,' he said.

'If you will stay with me to-night,' said the old man, 'I have a book
of the history of the world, and I shall know where they are before
daylight, if there is such a place in it at all.'

He stayed there all night, but there was not a word in the book about
the Blue Mountains. Seeing that he was rather cast down, the old man
told him that he had a brother nine hundred miles away, and that if
information could be got about them from anyone it would be from him;
'and I will enable you,' he said, 'to reach the place where he lives
before night.' So he blew his whistle, and the Irishman landed at the
brother's house before nightfall. When the old man saw him he said he
had not seen a single man for three hundred years, and was very much
surprised to see anyone come to him now.

[Illustration: The I