The Wisdom Of The King
THE High-Queen of the Island of
Woods had died in child-birth, and her
child ut to nurse, with a woman who
lived in a hut of mud and wicker, within
the border of the wood. One night the
woman sat rog the cradle, and p
over the beauty of the child, and praying
that the gods might grant him wisdom
equal to his beauty. There came a knock
at the door, and she got up, not a little
w, for the neighbours were
in the dun of the High-King a mile away;
and the night was now late. Who is
knog? she cried, and a thin voice
answered, ` Open! for I am a e of the
grey hawk, and I e from the darkness
of the great wood. In terror she drew
back the bolt, and a grey-clad woman, of
a great age, and of a height more than
human, came in and stood by the head of
the cradle. The nurse shrank back against
the wall, uo take her eyes from the
woman, for she saw by the gleaming of the
firelight that the feathers of the grey hawk
were upon her head instead of hair. But
the child slept, and the fire danced, for the
one was too ignorant and the other too full
of gaiety to know what a dreadful being
stood there. Open ! cried another voice,
~ for I am a e of the grey hawk, and I
watch over his ncst in the darkness of the
great wood. The nurse opehe door
again, though her fingers could scarce hold
the bolts for trembling, and anrey
woman, not less old thaher, and
with like feathers instead of hair, came in
and stood by the first. In a little, came a
third grey woman, and after her a fourth,
and then another and another and another,
until the hut was full of their immense
forms. They stood a long time in
perfect silend stillness, for they were
of those whom the dropping of the sand
has roubled, but at last otered
in a low thin voice: Sisters, I knew him
far away by the redness of his heart under
his silver skin; and then another spoke:
Sisters, I knew him because his heart
fluttered like a bird under a of silver
cords; and then aook up the
word: Sisters, I knew him because his
heart sang like a bird that had fotten
the silver cords. And after that they Bang
together, those who wearest rog
the cradle with long wrinkled fingers; and
their voices were now tender and caressing,
now like the wind blowing in the
great wood, and this was their song:
Out of sight is out of mind:
Long have man and woman-kind
Heavy of will and light of mood,
Taken away our wheaten food,
Taken away our Altar stone;
Hail and rain and thunder alone,
And red hearts we turn to grey,
Are true till Time gutter away.
When the song had died out, the e
who had first spoken, said, ~ Nothing now
remains but that a drop of our blood be
mixed into his blood. And she Scratched
her arm with the sharp point of a spindle,
which she had made the nurse bring to
her, a a drop of blood, grey as the
mist, fall upon the lips of the child; and
passed out into the darkness. Then the
others passed out in silene by one;
and all the while the child had not opened
his pink eyelids or the firc ceascd to dance,
for the one was too i