Late that night he was wakened up by the cries of his children
calling out 'Mother! Mother!' When he sat up and rubbed his eyes,
there was no wife by his side, and when he asked the little ones
what was become of their mother, they said they saw the room full
of nice little men and women, dressed in white and red and green,
and their mother in the middle of them, going out by the door as
if she was walking in her sleep. Out he ran, and searched
everywhere round the house but, neither tale nor tidings did he
get of her for many a day.

Well, the poor man was miserable enough, for he was as fond of
his woman as she was of him. It used to bring the salt tears down
his cheeks to see his poor children neglected and dirty, as they
often were, and they'd be bad enough only for a kind neighbour
that used to look in whenever she could spare time. The infant
was away with a nurse.

About six weeks after--just as he was going out to his work one
morning--a neighbour, that used to mind women when they were ill,
came up to him, and kept step by step with him to the field, and
this is what she told him.

'Just as I was falling asleep last night, I heard a horse's tramp
on the grass and a knock at the door, and there, when I came out,
was a fine-looking dark man, mounted on a black horse, and he
told me to get ready in all haste, for a lady was in great want
of me. As soon as I put on my cloak and things, he took me by the
hand, and I was sitting behind him before I felt myself stirring.
"Where are we going, sir?" says I. "You'll soon know," says he;