, I will make you payment that will
satisfy your soul.'

But here the girl looked up and answered quickly:

'Ill will come of it if he listens to your offer.'

'Counsel unsought is worth nothing,' replied, rudely, Ardan son of
Gorla. 'It would be little indeed that I am fit for if I cannot drive
three cows out to pasture and keep them safe from the wolves that
may come down from the mountains. Therefore, good father, I will take
service with you at daybreak, and ask no payment till the new year
dawns.'

Next morning the bell of the deer was not heard amongst the fern before
the maiden with the hair of gold had milked the cows, and led them in
front of the cottage where the old man and Ardan son of Gorla awaited
them.

'Let them wander where they will,' he said to his servant, 'and never
seek to turn them from their way, for well they know the fields of good
pasture. But take heed to follow always behind them, and suffer nothing
that you see, and nought that you hear, to draw you into leaving them.
Now go, and may wisdom go with you.'

As he ceased speaking he touched one of the cows on her forehead, and
she stepped along the path, with the two others one on each side. As he
had been bidden, behind them came Ardan son of Gorla, rejoicing in
his heart that work so easy had fallen to his lot. At the year's end,
thought he, enough money would lie in his pocket to carry him into far
countries where his sister might be, and, in the meanwhile, someone
might come past who could give him tidings of her.

Thus he spoke to himself, when his eyes fell on a golden cock and a
silver hen running swiftly along the grass in front of him. In a moment
the words that the old man had uttered vanished from his mind and he
gave chase. They were so near that he could almost seize their tails,
yet each time he felt sure he could catch them his fingers closed on the
empty air. At length he could run no more, and stopped to breathe, while
the cock and hen went on as before. Then he remembered the cows, and,
somewhat frightened, turned back to seek them. Luckily they had not
strayed far, and were quietly feeding on the thick green grass.

Ardan son of Gorla was sitting under a tree, when he beheld a staff of
gold and a staff of silver doubling themselves in strange ways on the
meadow in front of him, and starting up he hastened towards them. He
followed them till he was tired, but he could not catch them, though
they seemed ever within h