"The better the day, the better the deed! May I go within ?" "I will go with you," he said, "for she said that you would come, and bade me bring you to her." We entered the gateway together, and before us lay the square of the farm, strewn with litter, and from within the byre we heard the milk ring in the pails, for the women were milking the cows.

And there we both stood astonished, for we saw the Maid as never yet I had seen her.

She was bareheaded, but wore the rest of her harness, holding in her hand a measure of corn.

All the fowls of the air seemed to be about her, expecting their meat.

But she was not throwing the grain among them, for she stood as still as a graven image, and, wonderful to tell, a dove was perched on her shoulder, and a mavis was nestling in her breast, while many birds flew round her, chiefly doves with burnished plumage, flitting as it were lovingly, and softly brushing her now and again with their wings.