aring; he felt that the warm air was taking his
strength from him; he no longer liked the rich feasts that were spread
before him every day; he longed to follow the deer through the woods,
with his old friends, to kill it and to cook it and eat it in the
woods, and then to sleep there, under the trees and the stars; these
trees and these gardens were beautiful, it was true, but they were too
beautiful; a hard way through a rough forest would have pleased him
better now; he did not love the Princess less, but he longed to see
his father and his men again; her singing was no less sweet to him
than it had ever been before, but he wished that he could be again
where the Fenians, after a hard day's hunt or a hard day's fight, sat
about the fire in their stronghold, and listened to one of
them--perhaps himself, for he was the best singer of them all--while
he sang songs of great heroes and of great fights.

"And one day, when the Princess had been singing to him, he took her
harp from her and sang a song of one of his father's battles, a battle
which he had seen himself, where Diarmuid had slain hundreds, and
Orcur had slain hundreds, and Erin had been kept from her enemies.
Then he said to the Princess: 'Do not think that I am ungrateful for
all the happiness that I have had here, but I am longing to see Erin
again and to see my father and his men. It is not so beautiful a land
as this, but it is my own land, and I am longing to see it. The air
here is sweet and the sunshine is warm, but I should like to breathe
the mists and to feel the chill again, if I could only see Erin once
more!"

Mrs. O'Brien stopped a moment, with the way that she had of seeming to
look at things far off. Kathleen said nothing when she paused in this
way, and in a minute the old woman went on:

"'You would not be so happy in Erin as you think,' the Princess
answered him. 'This is the best place for you to stay, and it would
break my heart for you to go.'

"So Oisin said no more then, but the great longing grew upon him, and
every day the delights of Tir-na-n-Oge pleased him less. And at last
he spoke of it again, and asked the Princess to let him go for a
little while. 'You would find Erin changed,' she said, 'and the
Fenians are all gone. How long have you been here with me?'

"'I cannot tell you to a day,' Oisin answered, 'but I know that it is
weeks since I saw my country and my people.'

"'You have been here,' said the Princess, 'for thre