r fairy. "I
saw people looking into little boxes of wood, so I looked in too. And
in one I saw a woman dancing, and in another there were horses
running, and in another I saw two men fighting. And it was not a real
woman or real horses or real men, but only pictures that moved and did
the things that real people and horses would do."

The King listened to all this and then he sat and thought. "What is
there in it that I can't do?" he asked. "Do you not all know of the
coaches in Ireland that are drawn by horses without heads and driven
by coachmen without heads?"

All the fairies looked at one another and nodded and said, "Yes, yes,
we know."

But Naggeneen came forward and stood before the throne. Nobody had
noticed that he had been listening or that he was there. "And what if
those coaches were in Ireland?" he said. "They had horses, though the
horses had no heads. Can you make iron coaches go without any horses
at all?"

The King was trying to talk boldly, but he stammered and grew pale at
the very thought of having anything to do with an iron coach, and he
did not answer. He went on instead: "Can I not send any one of you on
a message, as fast as the wind?"

"But can you talk for ten miles," Naggeneen asked, "and will the very
voice of you go as fast as the lightning?"

"Why would I want to be doin' that," said the King, "when I can send a
messenger as fast as I like?"

"That's not the question," said the cruel Naggeneen; "can you do it?"

"I never tried," said the King. "And can I not light up this palace,"
he went on, "or any other palace, with diamonds? Can I not make a
light so that a man who looks behind him when he is going on a journey
or at work in the fields will think his house is on fire and run
back?"

"And when he has run back," said Naggeneen, "will he find that his
house is on fire? You know that he will not. It's only glamour, and
he'll soon be laughing at you. Oh, we can catch a few firebugs in
spiders' webs and deceive a boy or a girl that's passing, and maybe
make them turn aside and dance with us, but can you put real lights
all over the country for miles--lights that will burn on and on and
show real things? Our lights are lies themselves and they can no more
than lead a silly mortal astray for a time; their lights tell the
truth. What else can you do?"

The King had lost the most of his boldness. "They say," he said, "that
men can burst open the rock. Can I not do that as well?"