ry middle of the island, and
there they came to a palace, and Oisin thought that it was more
beautiful than anything else that he had seen. It may be that the
palace was built of marble, but to Oisin it seemed like blocks of pure
snow. It was so long that one might well mount his horse to go the
length of it, instead of walking. It had gilded domes that looked
like suns, with the light shining on them, and the whole palace was
dazzling to look at. All around it were gardens, with trees and plants
in full bloom, of all the colors of the rainbow, and colors that are
not in the rainbow, and other trees with only deep green leaves, and
pathways among them which led down into cool, shady hollows, with
clear brooks running through them between banks of soft, dark-green
moss, sinking their quiet little song.

"Oisin got down off his horse and then lifted the Princess down, and
they went into the palace. There the Princess's father, the King of
Tir-na-n-Oge, made Oisin welcome and led both of them to the banquet
hall, where a great feast was spread in honor of the Princess and the
new Prince. And Oisin thought that if the palace was beautiful
outside, it was much more beautiful inside, and as for the table that
was before him, he could not think of any of the best things in the
world to eat and to drink that were not on it.

"The next day the Princess was married to Oisin. For a long time Oisin
and the Princess lived in the palace and Oisin thought that he never
could be more happy than he was now. The old warriors cared much for
what they ate and drank, and Oisin ate and drank better things than he
had ever tasted before. He walked with the Princess down through the
shady ways among the trees and across the brooks and up the hill-sides
among the flowers. They sat together in the garden or in the palace
and she sang to him and told him wonderful tales of heroes and of
princesses of olden times. Sometimes they rode hunting together, and
everywhere they found game, the finest that Oisin had ever seen.

"But at last Oisin began to feel that he cared less for all these
things than he had done at first. The grass and the flowers and the
woods did not seem so fair to him as they had seemed; the sunshine was
not such pure gold; he wished that the silver streams would not blow
away in spray and mix with the mists; he wanted to see them come down
yellow with the earth of the mountains and plunge into caverns with
great rushing and ro