"What would your Ladyship
have?" said Rory the Fox. "Peacock is always tough."

[Illustration]

[Illustration: The Treasure of King Labraid Lorc]

The Treasure of King Labraid Lorc

[Illustration]

Kingfisher-all-Blue used to sit on the branch that went furthest
across the stream with his head bent down and looking as if he were
trying to think his head off. Only in the most lonesome places, far
from where the hens cackled and the geese gabbled and the cocks crew,
would the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said find him. And when he did
find him Kingfisher-all-Blue would not open his beak to say one
word--no, not even when the Boy would say "Where did you get your
beautiful color?" and "Why is your beak so big, little
Kingfisher-all-Blue?"

Now one day when he had left behind him the hens that cackled, the
geese that gabbled and the cocks that crew, and had left behind him
too the old raven that built in the lone tree he came where
Kingfisher-all-Blue sat upon the slenderest branch that went farthest
across the stream. And when Kingfisher-all-Blue saw him he lifted up
his head and he fixed his eye upon him and he cried out the one word
"Follow." Then he went flying down the stream as if he were not a bird
at all but a streak of blue fire.

Kingfisher-all-Blue went flying along the stream and the Boy Who Knew
What the Birds Said was able to follow him. They went on until the
stream they followed came out on the sand of the sea-shore. Then
Kingfisher-all-Blue seated himself on a branch that was just above
where the grains of sand and the blades of grass mixed with each other
and he fixed his eye on a mound of sand and clay. And when the Boy Who
Knew What the Birds Said came beside him Kingfisher-all-Blue said the
one word "Find."

Then the Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said began to take the sand and
clay from the mound. He worked all day at it and Kingfisher-all-Blue
sat on the branch above and watched him. And at evening, when all the
sand and clay had been taken away by him the Boy Who Knew What the
Birds Said came upon a stone that was as big and as round as the wheel
of a cart.

And when he had brushed away the grains of sand that was on the round
stone he saw a writing. The writing was in OGHAM, but at that time
even boys could read OGHAM. And the Ogham writing said YOU HAVE LUCK
TO HAVE SEEN THIS SIDE OF THE STONE BUT YOU WILL HAVE MORE LUCK WHEN
YOU SEE THE OTHER SIDE.

When he read that he looke