Nay, said Atra, I have told thee that by to-morrow she will have
altogether, or at least almost, forgotten thee and thy coming hither.
Moreover, she is foreseeing, and hath come to know that if she raise
a hand against any of us three, it will lead her to her bane, save it
be for heavy guilt clearly proven against us. Forsooth, in the
earlier days of our captivity such a guilt we fell into, and did not
wholly escape, as Viridis can bear me witness. But we are now grown
wiser, and know our mistress better, and will give her no such joy.

Viridis cast her eyes down at those words and Atra's smile, and
turned red and then pale, and Birdalone looked on her wondering what
ailed her; then she said: Do ye sisters work in the field and the
garden? I mean at milking the kine and the goats, and digging the
earth, and sowing and reaping, and the like. Nay, said Atra; either
our mistress or someone else who is of marvellous might, hath so
ordained, that here everything waxeth of itself without tillage, or
sowing or reaping, or any kind of tending; and whatso we need of
other matters the mistress taketh it for us from out of her Wonder-
coffer, or suffereth us to take it for ourselves. For thou must know
that this land is one of the Isles of the Lake, and is called the
Isle of Increase Unsought.

Meseemeth then, said Birdalone, were the mistress of you to gainsay
you the gifts of the Wonder-coffer, ye were undone. Yea, verily,
said Atra; then would be but the fruits of the earth and the wild
creatures for our avail, and these, we have not learned how to turn
them into dinner and supper. And they all laughed thereat; but
Birdalone said: See ye then how I was right to offer myself unto you
as a servant, for in all matters of the house and the byre and the