bucket will fill and sink to the bottom, and his will go up--at least
it may!'

[From Cuentos Populares, por Antonio de Trueba.]



How Ian Direach Got the Blue Falcon



Long ago a king and queen ruled over the islands of the west, and they
had one son, whom they loved dearly. The boy grew up to be tall and
strong and handsome, and he could run and shoot, and swim and dive
better than any lad of his own age in the country. Besides, he knew
how to sail about, and sing songs to the harp, and during the winter
evenings, when everyone was gathered round the huge hall fire shaping
bows or weaving cloth, Ian Direach would tell them tales of the deeds
of his fathers.

So the time slipped by till Ian was almost a man, as they reckoned men
in those days, and then his mother the queen died. There was great
mourning throughout all the isles, and the boy and his father mourned
her bitterly also; but before the new year came the king had married
another wife, and seemed to have forgotten his old one. Only Ian
remembered.

On a morning when the leaves were yellow in the trees of the glen, Ian
slung his bow over his shoulder, and filling his quiver with arrows,
went on to the hill in search of game. But not a bird was to be seen