Fairies and Folk of Ireland | Page 5

a just ruler to those who minded
his laws. It was in the West that he ruled, by the beautiful Lakes of
Killarney. The rich and the poor among his people were alike in one
thing--they all had justice. He punished even his own son when he did
wrong, as if he had been a poor man and a stranger.
"He gave grand feasts to his friends, and the greatest and the best men
of all Erin came to sit at his table and to hear the wise words that he

spoke. And the greatest bards of all Erin came to sing before him and
his guests of the brave deeds of the heroes of old days and of the
greatness and the goodness of O'Donoghue himself. At one of these
feasts, after a bard had been singing of the noble days of Erin long ago,
O'Donoghue began to speak of the years that were to come for Ireland.
He told of much good and of much evil. He told how true and brave
and noble men would live and work and fight and die for their country,
and how cowards would betray her. He told of glory and he told of
shame. He spoke of riches and honor, and poetry and beauty; he spoke
of want and disgrace, and degradation and sorrow.
"Those who sat at his table listened to him in wonder. Sometimes their
hearts swelled with pride at the noble lives and deeds of those who
were to come after them, sometimes they wept at the sufferings that
their children were to feel, and sometimes they hid their faces from
each other in shame at the tales of cowardice and of treachery.
[Illustration: "'BLESSED DAYS THERE WERE,' SHE SAID."]
"As he finished speaking he rose from the table, crossed the hall, and
walked out at the door and down to the shore of the lake. The others
followed him and watched him, full of wonder. They saw him go to the
edge of the lake and then walk out upon it, as if the water had been firm
ground under his feet. He walked far and far out on the bright lake as
they stood and gazed at him. Then he turned toward them, he waved his
hand in farewell, and he was gone. They saw him no more."
The old woman paused for a moment and the dreaming look came back
to her face. Then she went on. "They saw him no more--but others saw
him--and I have seen him. Every year, on the 1st of May, just as the sun
is rising, he rides across the lake on his beautiful white horse. He is not
always seen, but sometimes a few can see him. And it always brings
good luck to see O'Donoghue riding across the lake on May morning.
And I saw him."
Again there was a pause, but she had no look of dreaming now. Her
eyes were open and she seemed to be looking at something wonderful
and beautiful that was far off. Slowly and softly she began speaking

again. "I was a girl then. My father lived by the Lakes of Killarney. On
that May morning I was standing at the door as the sun was rising. I
was looking out upon the lake, far away to the east. The first that I saw
was that the water, far off toward the sun, was ruffled, and then all at
once a great, white-crested wave rose, as if a strong wind had struck the
water, only all the air was still, and no wind ever raises such a wave as
that on the lake. The wave came swiftly toward me, and I drew back, in
a kind of dread, though I knew that it could not reach me where I stood.
But still I looked--and then I saw him.
"Through the flying water and foam and mist I saw the old King, on his
white horse, following the great wave across the lake. The sun made all
his armor gleam like the silver of the lake itself, and the plume of his
helmet streamed away behind him like the spray that a strong wind
blows back from the crest of a breaker. After him came a train of
glowing, beautiful forms--spirits of the lake or of the air, or some of the
Good People--I do not know. They wore soft, flowing garments, that
were like the morning mists; they carried chains of pearls and they
scattered other pearls about them, that glistened like the drops of a
shower when the sun is shining through it. They had garlands of
flowers, and they plucked the flowers out and threw them high in the
air, so that they fell before the King. They looked like flecks