As the first light of the Midsummer Day came over the world the two who were fleeing before him were speaking of Zabulun the Enchanter. “That we may baffle him,” one said.

“And what if we cannot baffle him this time?” said the other.

“Then he will take me and make me do terrible services for him”—it was Eean who said this—“and, worse than all the services he will make me do, he will separate us.”

[Pg 148]

“No, no,” said Bird-of-Gold. “If he takes us this time, I shall do everything to make myself useful to the Enchanter. I have thought out ways in which I can serve him. He will not separate us and we will be together still.”

“O, Bird-of-Gold,” said Eean, “I am fearful lest he should slay you for taking the Magic Mirror off the Tower of Babylon. But I have a sword and he shall not harm you.”

“I shall escape him,” Bird-of-Gold said, “and as he followed you and me across the world, so I shall follow him and you, and we shall never be apart.”

They had learnt in their wanderings all ways of guiding themselves, and as they galloped on they were heading for the Western Ocean. Darkness was around them at first. But the sky was wide and clear, and Bird-of-Gold, when she raised her head, could see and name the bright planets. There was Mars with his red pulse. Bird-of-Gold likened this planet to the steed that she bestrode, and as she rode on she sang to herself the song that the shepherd boys in her own country used to sing about another star:

[Pg 149]
That star, I know, is Betelguise;
Yet, as I walk the hills by day,
I hardly know his splendid name—
That star is far away.
But when at night I travel on,
Or watch across an empty land,
Then Betelguise, my star of stars,
No thing is nearer hand.
Then send a ray that I may own
The fortune that is mine:
O Betelguise, my star of stars,
My forehead’s for your sign!

And after all the countries he had wandered through, Eean was now back on the ground of his own country. He heard the cry of the curlews overhead. He saw the lakes that looked as if even the birds had forgotten them, so lonely they were, lonely, but with dee............