“See,” said Gilian, pointing to the reflection at their feet. “Does it not look like a piece of the sky tumbled among the grasses? I sometimes think, to see it like that, that to fall into it would be to tangle with the stars.”
Nan only laughed and stooped to lift a stone.
She threw it into the very midst of the pool, and the mirror of the heavens was shattered.
“I never thought I could throw into the sky so far,” she said mischievously, pleased as it seemed to spoil the illusion in so sudden and sufficient a manner.
“Oh!” he cried, pained to the quick, “you should not have done that, it will spoil the story.”
“What is the story?” she said, sitting and looking down upon the troubled pool.
“You must wait till the water is calm again,” said he, seating himself a little below her on the bank, and watching the water-rings subside. Then when the pool had regained its old placidity, with the flecked sky pictured on it, he began his Gaelic story.
“Once upon a time,” said he, in the manner of the shealing tales, “there was a lady with eyes like the sea, and hair blowing like the tassel of the fir, and she was a daughter of the King in Knapdale, and she looked upon the world and she was weary. There came a little man to her from the wood and he said, ‘Go seven days, three upon water and four upon land, and you will come to a place where the moon’s sister swims, and there will be the earl’s son and the husband.’ The lady travelled seven days, three upon water and four upon land, and she came to the Linn where the sister of the moon was swimming. ‘Where is my earl’s son that is to be-my husband?’ she asked: and the moon’s sister said he was hunting in the two roads that lie below the river bed. The lady, who was the daughter of the King of Knapdale, shut her eyes that were like the sea, and tied in a cushion above her head her hair that was like the tassel of the fir, and broke the crystal door of dream and reached the two hunting roads in the bed of the river. ‘We are two brothers,’ said the watchers, standing at the end of the roads, ‘and we are the sons of earls.’ She thought and thought ‘I am Sir Sleep,’ said the younger. ‘And will you be true?’ said she. ‘Almost half the time, he answered. She thought and thought. ‘I am very weary,’ she said. ‘Then come with me,’ said the other, ‘I am the Older Brother.’ She heard above her the clanging at the door of dream as she went with the Older Brother. And she was happy for evermore.”
“Oh, that is a stupid story,” said Nan. “It’s not a true story at all. You could tell it to me anywhere, and why should we be troubled walking to the Linn?”
“Because this is the Lady’s Linn,” said Gilian, “and to be telling a story you must be putting a place in it or it will not sound true. And Gillesbeg Aotram who told me the story—”