“Last night I heard the church bells, godfather,” said Carey as she sat beside him under their favourite rock, “were they not beautiful?” But the old merman’s face darkened as she spoke.
“They are not beautiful to me,” he made answer, “I know that your race has a love for the sound, and soon grows homesick for the want of it, but with my people it is not so. I will tell you what befell me long ago. There stood a little chapel on a rocky islet, and one Christmas night the bells rang out so joyously and with such a note of welcome in their voices, that I pressed as close as I might to the window of many-coloured glass, and within there was light, and the sound of chanting. But when the monks came forth, they drove me away with hard words, and called me an evil spirit.”
Then Carey put her arms about him, and kissed him many times, saying, “Never mind, dear godfather; I know that you are not an evil spirit, and I will always love you.” And at that the smile came again to his face. These were happy years for them both, and they sped past unheeded, till Carey was no longer a little maid, but a fair tall maiden with many suitors.
Now it happened that one Shrovetide Carey went to church, and as she followed the straggling path along the top of the cliffs, a stranger joined her, clad like a huntsman all in green, with a horn by his side, and two great hounds at his heels.
“Where are you going, fair maid?” asked he.
“I go to church,” she said, “because it is Shrovetide.”
“May I walk by your side?” he asked.
“That you may, if it so please you,” said she. So they walked on together, talking as they went, but when they reached the little grey church he stopped short.
“Do you go in alone, mistress,” he said, “and I will wait for you here.”
So Carey entered the church alone, but as soon as she came out the huntsman joined her again, and they walked homewards together. Now he was a fair-spoken man, with much to tell of distant climes and strange adventures, so that Carey contrasted him in her thoughts with the uncouth, tongue-tied fisher lads, her wooers, and was sorry when the moment came for parting.