THE WISDOM OF THE KING.


The High-Queen of the Island of Woods had died in childbirth, and her
child was put to nurse with a woman who lived in a hut of mud and
wicker, within the border of the wood. One night the woman sat
rocking the cradle, and pondering over the beauty of the child, and
praying that the gods might grant him wisdom equal to his beauty.
There came a knock at the door, and she got up, not a little
wondering, for the nearest neighbours were in the dun of the High-
King a mile away; and the night was now late. 'Who is knocking?' she
cried, and a thin voice answered, 'Open! for I am a crone of the grey
hawk, and I come from the darkness of the great wood.' In terror she
drew back the bolt, and a grey-clad woman, of a great age, and of a
height more than human, came in and stood by the head of the cradle.
The nurse shrank back against the wall, unable to take her eyes from
the woman, for she saw by the gleaming of the firelight that the
feathers of the grey hawk were upon her head instead of hair. But the
child slept, and the fire danced, for the one was too ignorant and
the other too full of gaiety to know what a dreadful being stood
there. 'Open!' cried another voice, 'for I am a crone of the grey
hawk, and I watch over his nest in the darkness of the great wood.'
The nurse opened the door again, though her fingers could scarce hold
the bolts for trembling, and another grey woman, not less old than
the other, and with like feathers instead of hair, came in and stood
by the first. In a little, came a third grey woman, and after her a
fourth, and then another and another and another, until the hut was
full of their immense bodies. They stood a long time in perfect
silence and stillness, for they were of those whom the dropping of
the sand has never troubled, but at last one muttered in a low thin