The day was done and the night came on and Earl Mar's daughter was
thinking of going to sleep when, turning round, she found at her side
a handsome young man. She _was_ startled, for the door had been
locked for hours. But she was a brave girl and said: "What are you
doing here, young man, to come and startle me so? The door was barred
these hours ago; how ever did you come here?"

"Hush! hush!" the young man whispered. "I was that cooing dove that
you coaxed from off the tree."

"But who are you then?" she said quite low; "and how came you to be
changed into that dear little bird?"

"My name is Florentine, and my mother is a queen, and something more
than a queen, for she knows magic and spells, and because I would not
do as she wished she turned me into a dove by day, but at night her
spells lose their power and I become a man again. To-day I crossed the
sea and saw you for the first time and I was glad to be a bird that I
could come near you. Unless you love me, I shall never be happy more."

"But if I love you," says she, "will you not fly away and leave me one
of these fine days?"

"Never, never," said the prince; "be my wife and I'll be yours for
ever. By day a bird, by night a prince, I will always be by your side
as a husband, dear."

So they were married in secret and lived happily in the castle and no
one knew that every night Coo-my-dove became Prince Florentine. And
every year a little son came to them as bonny as bonny could be. But