Up! Horsie! | Page 3

the snatches of the enchantress's song, the breeze wafted from below, and lapped in the pleasing visions of dreamland.
On waking next morning, he found himself lying on the grass near the castle, with the ivory fiddle beside him, and saw the flocks grazing quietly around, as if they had never ceased browsing all night. He rose up refreshed and invigorated, and when the lady came forth from the castle and again plied him with a draught from the goblet, he felt ready to go forth and lead the sheep to fresh pastures.
"Mind you do not lose any of them, and don't forget the fiddle will call any stragglers back to you," said the lady with a parting smile and wave of her hand.
Gilbert thought nothing could be easier, having only an indistinct remembrance of yesterday's disasters, and longing more than ever to do everything in his power to please the lady of the castle. But in spite of his good-will, the sheep strayed away as before, and he spent a toilsome day in vainly running after them, and fiddling away to no purpose. As before they seemed to merge into mist at the close of the day, and it was with a heavy heart he presented himself at the foot of the hill where the lady was awaiting him. Again she gave him a draught of the delicious wine, and again took the fiddle and drew the bow across the strings, when the flock began to return as before, but she looked very grave as she said: "Some of them are lost--you must seek them to-morrow. Go now and rest in the castle."
Then Gilbert, whose wits were in a still more confused state than the first time he quaffed that richly flavoured wine, went up the hill and fell asleep as before, and slept soundly till morning, when again the lady brought him a bumper, bidding him be sure and bring back all the sheep, or he would fall under her displeasure, while on the other hand, if none were found missing, she would not only give him his evening's draught, but a kiss into the bargain. On hearing this, Gilbert thought no exertions would be too great for such a reward, and he set off in high spirits; but he had not gone a hundred yards before the flock dispersed three different ways, and let him fiddle as he would, he found it impossible to gather them together again. Nevertheless, he followed one of the three groups, and in the heat of the chase, was led into a wild district amongst rocks and cascades, with overhanging trees, where the sheep seemed to turn quite wild, and subdividing into yet smaller bands, some were seen scaling the steep crags and looking down from dizzy heights, while others dashed into the water and swam across the mountain streams. Gilbert ran about almost like one possessed, vainly striving to collect the scattered fragments of the flock entrusted to his care, and in despair at the thought of the sorry figure he should cut on returning to give an account of his day's work to the lady, and sorely troubled at the prospect of losing the promised kiss which he would not have exchanged for a kingdom.
At length, after having scaled one of the highest crags, where he made sure of catching a sheep, which seemed just as he tried to seize it to merge into the spray of the waterfall that leaped down a kind of natural staircase of rocks, he felt so exhausted that he lay down on a knoll in the fissures of the rock, exclaiming: "Surely I must be bewitched!"
A loud laugh reverberated from the rocks below, and Gilbert slightly raised his head to see whence it proceeded. Seeing no one, he concluded it must be the cry of some strange bird, caught up by the echo, and then to drive away a kind of grisly feeling of terror that began to creep upon him, he took up his fiddle as he lay stretched on the grass, and fell to scraping away without the slightest regard to time or tune, more as if he were sawing a piece of wood, than playing on a musical instrument. He then became aware of a very curious thing, which was that the sheep all returned as he drew the bow backwards, tho' they were off again the moment he drew it forwards. This convinced him he had not attended to the manner in which the lady drew the bow, and accounted for his losing the sheep every evening. "Now," thought he, "I am sure of obtaining the kiss and the cup of wine, and I need take no further trouble about the flock."
Bye and bye what he had taken for the gnarled