e hundred years.'

"Oisin could not understand it, but he thought that if he could live
so long and not know that the time had passed, the Fenians, too, might
be living still, and he begged again to be allowed to go. At last the
Princess saw that he would never be happy unless he went, so she
brought him the same white horse that had brought them both to
Tir-na-n-Oge. 'The horse,' she said, 'will take you to Erin. But you
must sit upon his back and never loose his bridle or get down upon the
ground. If you touch the ground of Erin you will be at once a weak,
old man, you can never come back to Tir-na-n-Oge, you will never see
me, and I shall never see you again. Will you promise me, if I will
let you go, that you will not get off the horse's back or let go his
bridle?'

"Oisin promised and she let him go. Away over the water the horse
galloped again. Tir-na-n-Oge, with its warm sun and its sweet air, was
left behind. A damp sea-wind came up, and it blew the salt spray
harshly into Oisin's face as the horse dashed along. It was a joy to
him. No more of the soft comforts of that weary island. This was
something for a man to face. Yet he did not forget the Princess, and
he meant to go back to her when he had seen his land and his people
once more. Then the clouds and the fog drifted away and the sun shone
out, but still the salt spray covered him, and he felt stronger as he
made his way against it and felt the great, free breeze from the east.
And now he saw something like a little cloud on the horizon, and it
rose higher and grew wider, and then its misty brown faded away and he
saw the beautiful green shores of Erin."

The old woman paused again and said over softly to herself: "The
beautiful--beautiful green shores of Erin."

"The horse and the rider soon reached the land now. Oisin rode first
to the spot where he had first met the Princess of Tir-na-n-Oge and
where he had last seen his father and his companions. He did not think
to find them there, but he felt that it was the first place to which
he should go. The forest had been cleared away a little, and a strange
building stood there. It was a small house, built of stone, and there
was a cross on the top of it. Inside he heard a sound of singing. He
rode to the door and looked in. There were people kneeling before a
man who stood in a higher place than the rest and held up a golden
cup.

"This was something that Oisin did not understand, and he rode away,
rem