Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

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Household Stories. 55
no more nor her sister, and the very same thing happened
to her. She was left a grey flag by the side of the other.
At last the youngest went off in search of the other
two, and she took care to carry her mother's blessing
with her. She shared her dinner with the poor woman
on the road, and she told her that she would watch
over her.
Well, she got lodging in the same place as the others,
and agreed to mind the corpse. She sat up by the fire
with the dog and cat, and amused herself with some
apples and nuts the mistress gave her. She thought it a
pity that the man under the table was a corpse, he was
so handsome.
But at last he got up, and says he, " All alone, fair
maid "
! and she wasn't long about an answer :
" Ho, ho !
" All alone I am not.
I've little dog Uouse and Pussy, my cat ;
I've apples to roast, and nuts to crack,
And all alone I am not."
" says he, " you're a girl of courage, though
you wouldn't have enough to follow me. I am now
going to cross the quaking bog, and go through the
burning forest. I must then enter the cave of terror,
and climb the hill of glass, and drop from the top of it
into the Dead Sea." " I'll follow you," says she, " for I
engaged to mind you." He thought to prevent her, but
she was as stiff as he was stout.
Out he sprang through the window, and she followed
him till they came to the " Green Hills," and then
says he :
" Open, open, Green Hills, and let the Light of the Green Hills
through ;"
"Aye," says the girl, "and let the fair maid, too."
They opened, and the man and woman passed through,
and there they were, on the edge of a bog.
He trod lightly over the shaky bits of moss and sod ;
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