ed to hunt with his father in the forest, and he grew up strong and active, sure and swift-footed as a deer, and as free and fearless as the wind. He was tall and handsome; a

d joy in the music of the hounds or in the cries of the huntsmen in forest glades. He yearned for the chance of battle, and the clang of shields, and the fierce shouts of fighting warriors, and he spent all his spare hours practising on the harp and 125 learning the use of arms, for in those days the bravest warriors were also bards. In this way the spring and summer and autumn pas

, Fergus heard three loud knocks at the door. He ca

pen at once; this is no night to kee

flash of lightning showed him, standing at the threshold,

id Fergus, and the little

night, neighbo

got up and dressed themselves; "and sorry we are we have no better shel

ore than his best,"

hed up into a blaze, and made the hut bright and warm. She th

hungry, sir

ldn't ask for better fare than thi

e, "and I hope you will eat enou

upper," said the huntsman, "I'll

e, if it is pleasing to you, and I'll sleep like a top until morning. And now go back to your beds and leave me to m

ueer thing if an Irish cabin would not give shelter and welcome in a wild

n, "and may you and yours never

eir beds, and the little man, having finished his supper,

ergus, and before it had died away he heard three kno

her, "this is no night to keep

of lightning showed him a little old woman,

id he, and the little old

lcome to a wanderer on a wild nig

an's wife, coming forward with a peggin of milk and a barley cake in

the little woman, "and now go back

bed of rushes for you,"

little woman; "go back to your b

ttle old woman, having eaten her supper, la

them. He opened the door, and a flash of lightning showed him outside the threshold a low-sized, shaggy, wild-looking horse. And Fergus knew it was the Pooka,

n, and

, "and sorry we are that we have not

aid the Pooka, as he came over near t

is, Master 129 Pooka," said the huntsman

e Pooka, crunching it between his teeth, "and now if

runk it, "Now," says the Pooka, "go back to your beds, and I'll

ody in the hut

ore surprised than he when he saw no sign of the little old man, or the little old woman, or the wild horse of the mountains. His parents were also surprised, and they all

ne day he told his parents that he was resolved to seek his fortune. He said he wished to be a so

or the road that led to the palace of the High King of Erin. He arrived there just at the time when the

at he could run with plaited hair through the tangled forest without loosening a single hair, and that in his course he could jump over trees as high as his head, and stoop under trees as low as his knee, and that he could run so lightly that the rotten twigs should not break un

woo her. From the northern lands came vikings in stately galleys with brazen prows, whose oarsmen tore the white foam from the emerald seas as they swept towards the Irish coasts. But the lady had vowed she would wed with no one except a battle champion who could excel in music the chief bard of the High King of Erin; who could outstrip on his steed in the great

match from her sunny bower. He no sooner saw her than he fell over head and ears in love with her, and he thought of her by n

rms and games, in order to take part in the contests to be held during the fair. And Fergus, knowing that the princess

ehorses; jewellers with gold drinking-horns, and brooches, and pins, and ear-rings, and costly gems of all kinds, and chess-boards of silver and gold, and golden and silver chessmen in bags of woven brass; dyers with their many-coloured fabrics; bands of jugglers; drovers goading on herds of cattle; shepherds driving their sheep; huntsmen with s

ariot with the high queen, under an awning made of the wings of birds, to protect them from the rays of the sun. Following the queen were the court ladies in other chariots, under awnings of purple or o

tle only. In an enclosure next the king's sat the queen and the princess and all the ladies of the court. At either side of the royal pavilions were others for the dames and ladies and nobles and chiefs of different degrees, f

by all the assembled bards, to the accompaniment of their harps, the chant in honour of the mighty dead. When this was ended, again the heralds struck their shields, and the contests began. The first contest was the contest of spear-th

Fergus, and when they stood in front of the king, holding their spears aloft, every heart was throbbing with excitement. Once more the heralds struck their shields, and, swifter than the lightning's flash, forth went the spears, and when Fergus's spear was seen shivering in the ground a full length ahead of the great chief 135 Oscar's, the air was shaken by a wi

warriors were revelling in their camps the heart of Fergus, victor as he was, was sa

eart is sic

alsam in t

balsam in

its

tars glancing through the leaves, and listening to the slu

ation as to the contest of to-morrow––the contest which was to decide whether the chief bard of Erin was to 136 hold his own agains

nions and be witness of the contest which might determine whether the princess was to be another's bride, his great love and his utter despair of winning her so oppressed him that he lay as motionless as a broken reed. He scarcely heard the music of the birds, and paid no heed to the murmur of the brook rushing b

hould he see but a little

s a nice place for you to be on the day which is to decid

id Fergus, "who is to

a good turn for you and yours. The time has come. Take this harp, and my luck go with you, and in the contest of the bards t

gus and disappeared as swiftly as the

ken cloak, reached the camp before his co

ived when the great co

nd in front of the royal enclosures he was greeted with a roar of cheers, but at t

arkled as brightly as running waters dancing in the sun. When the last notes had died away a cheer arose, loud as the voice of the storm in the glen when the live thunder is revelling on the mountain tops. As soon as the bard had descended the mound the Skald from the northern lands took his place, greeted by cries of welcome from a hundred thousand throats. He touched his harp, and in the perfect silence was heard the strains of the mermaid's song, and through it the pleasant ripple of summer waters on the pebbly beach. Then the theme was changed, and on t

the mound, and there standing in view of all was Fergus, the huntsman's son.

spering when the leaves are motionless in the noonday heat; then followed notes cool and soft as the drip of summer showers on the parched grass, and then the song of the blackbird, sounding as clearly as it sounds in long silent spaces of the evening, and then in one sweet

hty multitude, for the strains of his harp, long after i

all were glad the comely Fenian champion had maintained the supremacy of the bards of Erin. But there was one

e knew that he could not hope to compete with the rider of the white steed of the plains. And as he lay beneath the spreading branches during the whole night long his thoughts were not of t

back to him that he had never left his forest home. As his eyes followed the deer wistfully, suddenly he

that wild winter's night. The day is passing. You have no time to lose. The white steed of the plai

was about to declare there was no steed to compete with the white steed of the plains, the Pooka with Fergus upon his back, galloped up in front of th

rushed from the post with the swiftness of a swallow's flight. But before the white steed of the plains had gone half-way round, Fergus a

rough his eyes that were fastened on the princess, and a wild hope 142 stirr

was beyond the power of Fergus to bring her a robe of all the colours of

anches, with his feet towards the rustling waters, and the smiles of the princess gilded his slumbers, as the rays of the rising sun gild the glades of the fo

l the kings of Erin, or than all the other princes and kings and chieftains in the whole world. But you and your father and mother were kind to me on a wild winter's night, and I'd never see your mother's son without a wedding robe fit for the greatest princess that 14

lled the flowers, and brought

lours of the rainbow, as light as the fairy dew, as soft as the hand of the princess, as fr

the glory which will come to you when you are wedded to the princess, be as kind, and have as o

rewell strains to the memory of the great queen. But before the chief bard could ascend the mound, Fergus, attended by a troop of Fenian warriors on

rize in the contest of the bards; that I have won the prize in the race against the white steed of the plains

the contests; let the princess declare

rgus, closed her fingers over it,

ad fulfilled a single one of them, my heart went out to the comely champion of the

TE