cold, and grow tall and strong. Kilweh was
quite happy with his nurse, and ran races and climbed hills with the
children who were his playfellows, and in the winter, when the snow
lay on the ground, sometimes a man with a harp would stop and beg for
shelter, and in return would sing them songs of strange things that had
happened in the years gone by.

But long before this changes had taken place in the court of Kilweh's
father. Soon after she had sent her baby away the queen became much
worse, and at length, seeing that she was going to die, she called her
husband to her and said:

'Never again shall I rise from this bed, and by and bye thou wilt take
another wife. But lest she should make thee forget thy son, I charge
thee that thou take not a wife until thou see a briar with two blossoms
upon my grave.' And this he promised her. Then she further bade him
to see to her grave that nothing might grow thereon. This likewise he
promised her, and soon she died, and for seven years the king sent a man
every morning to see that nothing was growing on the queen's grave, but
at the end of seven years he forgot.

One day when the king was out hunting he rode past the place where the
queen lay buried, and there he saw a briar growing with two blossoms on
it.

'It is time that I took a wife,' said he, and after long looking he
found one. But he did not tell her about his son; indeed he hardly
remembered that he had one till she heard it at last from an old woman
whom she had gone to visit. And the new queen was very pleased, and sent
messengers to fetch the boy, and in his father's court he stayed, while
the years went by till one day the queen told him that a prophecy
had foretold that he was to win for his wife Olwen the daughter of
Yspaddaden Penkawr.

When he heard this Kilweh felt proud and happy. Surely he must be a man
now, he thought, or there would be no talk of a wife for him, and his
mind dwelt all day upon his promised bride, and what she would be like
when he beheld her.

'What aileth thee, my son?' asked his father at last, when Kilweh had
forgotten something he had been bidden to do, and Kilweh blushed red as
he answered:

'My stepmother says that none but Olwen, the daughter of Yspaddaden
Penkawr, shall be my wife.'

'That will be easily fulfilled,' replied his father. 'Arthur the king
is thy cousin. Go therefore unto him and beg him to cut thy hair, and to
grant thee this boon.'

Then the youth prick