'I will tell you why I have not been able to rest,' he said. 'It is
right that you should know, for you have served me faithfully these
five years and more, and even with affection, taking away thereby a
little of the doom of loneliness which always falls upon the wise.
Now, too, that the end of my labour and the triumph of my hopes is at
hand, it is the more needful for you to have this knowledge.'

'Master, do not think that I would question you. It is for me to keep
the fire alight, and the thatch close against the rain, and strong,
lest the wind blow it among the trees; and it is for me to take the
heavy books from the shelves, and to lift from its corner the great
painted roll with the names of the Sidhe, and to possess the while an
incurious and reverent heart, for right well I know that God has made
out of His abundance a separate wisdom for everything which lives,
and to do these things is my wisdom.'

'You are afraid,' said the old man, and his eyes shone with a
momentary anger.

'Sometimes at night,' said the boy, 'when you are reading, with the
rod of quicken wood in your hand, I look out of the door and see, now
a great grey man driving swine among the hazels, and now many little
people in red caps who come out of the lake driving little white cows
before them. I do not fear these little people so much as the grey
man; for, when they come near the house, they milk the cows, and they
drink the frothing milk, and begin to dance; and I know there is good
in the heart that loves dancing; but I fear them for all that. And I
fear the tall white-armed ladies who come out of the air, and move
slowly hither and thither, crowning themselves with the roses or with
the lilies, and shaking about their living hair, which moves, for so