man he got up off his bed and he
walked to where two roads met. He turned as the sun turns and he
whispered into the branches of the first tree on his right hand. And
the secret that he whispered was 'King Labraid Lorc has the ears of a
horse.' Then he turned from the tree and he went home. He slept, and
in the morning when he woke he was well and he went to his work and he
was happy and cheerful.

"But the tree that he whispered his secret to was a willow, and, as you
know, out of the branches of the willow the harp is made. As the
widow's son went away a Harper seeking wood to make a new harp came
that way. He saw the willow and he knew that its branches were just
right for the making of his harp. He cut them and he bent them and he
formed a harp from them. And when the harp was firmly fixed the Harper
came with it to the King's Castle.

"The King gave a feast so that the first music that came from the harp
should be honored. He made the Harper sit near his own High Chair.
Then, when the feast was at its height he called upon the Harper to
stand up and strike the first music from the new harp.

"'The first music from the new harp shall be praise of the King,' said
the Harper when he stood up. He drew his fingers across the strings
and all listened for the first music that would come. But the harp
that was made out of the willow branches that the widow's son had
whispered to murmured 'Labraid Lorc has the ears of a horse, Labraid
Lorc has the ears of a horse.' The King started up from his High
Chair. The Harper threw down the harp. Everyone was silent in the
hall. Then one voice was heard saying 'It is true. The King Labraid
Lorc has the ears of a horse.'

"The King had the man who said it taken by his soldiers and flung from
the top of the Castle. No one else spoke. But the next day when he
rode abroad the King heard the people behind the hedges saying
'Labraid Lorc has the ears of a horse.'

"After that, whenever he came near them, people went from him, and at
last no one was left in his Castle. And there was no one to take him
over to the fair Islands that Mananaun, Lord of the Sea, had given him
for a possession. And there was no one to bring over the fruits that
grew on the islands nor the cattle and sheep that pastured there.

"Then the King went to Mananaun, Lord of the Sea, and he offered him
back the keys Mananaun had given him--the silver keys that struck each
other when they were brought together and