The Child that Went with the Fairies

The short story "The Child that Went with the Fairies" by Sheridan Le Fanu.

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         <titleStmt>
            <title>The Child that Went with the Fairies with Notes for Clarification</title>
         </titleStmt>
         <publicationStmt>
            <p>Original basetext publication by G. Bell and Sons, LTD. London in 1924. This
               publication was created for Digital Editing at UNH.</p>
         </publicationStmt>
         <sourceDesc>
            <p>This was taken from a book titled Madam Crowl's Ghost and other Tales of Mystery by
               J.S. Le Fanu collected and edited by M.R. James. This was published by G. Bell and
               Sons, LTD. in London in 1924. This is the reprint version printed in April of 1924.
               The original was printed in November of 1923, as noted on the first pages of the
               book.</p>
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      <profileDesc>
         <particDesc>
            <listPerson>
               <person xml:id="Sarsfield">
                  <note>Sarsfield held a leading role in the resistance of the Irish Roman
                     Catholic's against King William III of England. This story is specifically
                     referring to his successful attack on King William III while defending
                     Limerick.<lb/>Source<lb/>“Patrick Sarsfield | Irish Jacobite.” <hi
                        rend="italics">Encyclopedia Britannica</hi>,
                     https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrick-Sarsfield. Accessed 6 Apr. 2018.
                  </note>
               </person>
               <person xml:id="Mary_Ryan">
                  <note>This is the mother within the story who is referenced by different versions
                     of her name throughout the story, including Moll Ryan.</note>
               </person>
               <person xml:id="Bill">
                  <note> the story as having blonde hair. He is sometimes referred to as Billy or
                     Bill and sometimes referred to as Leum.</note>
               </person>
            </listPerson>
         </particDesc>
         <settingDesc>
            <listPlace>
               <place xml:id="Limerick">
                  <note>The city of Limerick is located in the county of Limerick in the west coast
                     of Ireland. The county boarders the counties of Tipperary, Cork, Clare, and
                     Kerry. It is a county and city rich in history.<lb/>Source<lb/><hi
                        rend="italics">About County Limerick Topography, Roots Ireland, Irish Family
                        History Foundation, Online Search Facility – Roots Ireland.</hi>
                     http://www.rootsireland.ie/limerick-genealogy/about-limerick/. Accessed 13 Apr.
                     2018. </note>
               </place>
               <place xml:id="Lisnavoura">
                  <note>This is a fictional hill that appears only in this particular story. It is a
                     hill that is specifically associalted with fairies and is thought to be the
                     home of the fairies within this short story.</note>
               </place>
               <place xml:id="Slieveelim">
                  <note>This is most likely referencing the Slieve Felim mountains. There is a
                     walking trail along these hills and mountains called the Slieve Felim Way which
                     spans four different counties ans a total of 23 miles.<lb/>Source<lb/><hi
                        rend="italics">The Slieve Felim Way | Limerick.Ie.</hi>
                     https://www.limerick.ie/discover/eat-see-do/sports-recreation/activities/walking-routes/county-limerick-trails/slieve-felim.
                     Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. </note>
               </place>
               <place xml:id="Killaloe">
                  <note>This is a town in the county of Clare in Ireland. It is on the Shannon
                     River.<lb/>Source<lb/>“Killaloe| Ireland.” <hi rend="italics">Visit Clare |
                        Ireland</hi>, https://www.clare.ie/place/killaloe/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.
                  </note>
               </place>
               <place xml:id="Knockdoula">
                  <note>This is a fictional hill that appears only in this particular story. It is
                     close to the fairy hill called Lisnavoura.</note>
               </place>

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      <body>
         <fw>4</fw>
         <head><hi rend="uppercase">The Child that Went with the Fairies</hi></head>
         <p>Anonymous in <hi rend="italics">All the Year Round</hi> (1869-1870). Readers of
            "Carmilla" in <hi rend="italics">In a Glass Darkly</hi> will recognize the negro woman
            in the coach.</p>
         <p><hi rend="uppercase">Eastward</hi> of the old city of <placeName ref="#Limerick"
               >Limerick</placeName>, about ten Irish miles under the range of mountains known as
            the Slieveelim hills, famous as having afforded <persName ref="#Sarsfield"
               >Sarsfield</persName> shelter among their rocks and hollows, when he crossed them in
            his gallant descent upon the cannon and ammunition of King William, on its way to the
            beleaguering army, there runs a very old narrow road. It connects the Limerick road to
            Tipperary with the old road from Limerick to Dublin, and runs by bog and pasture, hill
            and hollow, straw-thatched village, and roofless castle, not far from twenty miles.</p>
         <p>Skirting the heathy<note>In this use, health means shrubby and evergreen plants that
               grow on poor soil which is otherwise barren, usually acidic and poorly drained. These
               plants are typically have needle-like leaves in whorls and clusters of small
                  flowers.<lb/>Source.<lb/><hi rend="italic">Definition of HEATH.</hi>
               https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heath. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. </note>
            mountains of which I have spoken, at one part it becomes singularly lonley. For more
            than three Irish miles<note>An Irish mile, is longer than the standard mile. It was
               defined as 6,720 feet where the standard mile, called the statute mile, is 5,280
               miles. The Irish mile had already been established in 1592 when Queen Elizabeth I
               passed a law defined the statute mile necessary for both commercial and legal
               reasons. Specifically, it made it easier to tax land
               accurately.<lb/>Source.<lb/>Irish Mile.
               http://www.askaboutireland.ie/narrative-notes/irish-mile/. Accessed 1 May 2018.
            </note> it traverses a deserted country. A wide, black bog, level as a lake, skirted
            with copse<note>A grouping or thicket of small trees.<lb/>Source.<lb/>Definition of
               COPSE. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copse. Accessed 2 May 2018.</note>
            spreads at the left, as you journey northward, and the long and irregular line of
            mountain rises at the right, clothed in heath<note>In this usage, heath means shrubby
               and evergreen plants that grow on poor soil which is otherwise barren, usually acidic
               and poorly drained.<lb/>Source.<lb/>Definition of HEATH.
               https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heath. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. </note>,
            broken with lines of grey rock that resemble the bold and irregular outlines of
            fortifications, and riven with</p>
         <fw>74</fw>
         <pb/>
         <fw><hi rend="uppercase">The Child that went with the Fairies</hi> 75</fw>
         <p>many a gully, expanding here and there into rocky and wooded glens, which open as they
            approach the road.</p>
         <p>A scanty pasturage, on which browsed a few scattered sheep or kine<note>Kine is the old
               archaic plural of cow.<lb/>Source.<lb/>Definition of KINE.
               https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kine. Accessed 2 May 2018. </note>, skirts
            this solitary road for some miles, and under shelter of a hillock, and of two or three
            great ash-trees, stood, not many years ago, the little thatched cabin of a widow named
               <persName ref="#Mary_Ryan">Mary Ryan</persName>.</p>
         <p>Poor was this widow in a land of poverty. The thatch had acquired the grey tint and
            sunken outlines, that show how the alternations of rain and sun have told upon that
            perishable shelter.</p>
         <p>But whatever other dangers threatened, there was one well provided against by the care
            of other times. Round the cabin stood half a dozen mountain ashes, as the rowans,
            inimical to witches, are there called. On the worn planks of the door were nailed two
            horse-shoes, and over the lintel and spreading along the thatch, grew, luxuriant,
            patches of that ancient cure for many maladies, and prophylactic against the
            machinations of the evil one, the house-leek. Descending into the doorway, in the <hi
               rend="italics">chiaroscuro<note>This is a term for the representation of light and
                  shade in artwork, specifically pictoral arts. It also means being veiled or
                  shadowed.<lb/>Source<lb/>Chiaroscuro | Definition of Chiaroscuro by
                  Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chiaroscuro. Accessed
                  2 May 2018. </note></hi> of the interior, when your eye grow sufficiently
            accustomed to that dim light, you might discover, hanging at the head of the widow's
            wooden-roofed bed, her beads and a phial<note>Another word for
               vial.<lb/>Source<lb/>Definition of PHIAL.
               https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phial. Accessed 2 May 2018. </note> of
            holy water.</p>
         <p>Here certainly were defences and bulwarks<note>A bulwark is something, either physical
               or not, that protects a person against something dangerous or
               uncomfortable.<lb/>Source<lb/>Bulwark Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.
               https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bulwark. Accessed 2 May 2018.
            </note> against the intrusion of the unearthly and evil power, of whose vicinity this
            solitary family were constantly reminded by the outline of <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura"
               >Lisnavoura</placeName>, that lonely hill-haunt of the "Good people," as the fairies
            were called euphemistically, whose strangely dome-like summit rose not half a mile away,
            looking like an outwork of the long line of mountain that sweeps by it.</p>
         <p>It was at the fall of the leaf, and an autumnal sunset threw the lengthening shadow of
            haunted <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura">Lisnavoura</placeName>,</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw>76 <hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi></fw>
         <p>close in front of the solitary little cabin, over the undulating slopes and sides of
               <placeName ref="#Slieveelim">Slieveelim</placeName>. The birds were singing among the
            branches in the thinning leaves of the melancholy ash-trees that grew at the roadside in
            front of the door. The widow's three younger children were playing on the road, and
            their voices mingled with the evening song of the birds. Their older sister, Nell, was
            "within in the house," as their phrase is, seeing after the boiling of the potatoes for
            supper.</p>
         <p>Their mother had gone down to the bog, to carry up a hamper of turf on her back. Is is,
            or was at least, a charitable custom - and if not disused, long may it continue - for
            the wealthier people when cutting their turf and stacking it in the bog, to make a
            smaller stack for the behoof of the poor who were welcome to take from it so long as it
            lasted, and thus the potato pot was kept boiling, and the hearth warm that would have
            been cold enough but for that good-natured bounty, through wintry months.</p>
         <p><persName ref="#Mary_Ryan">Moll Ryan</persName> trudged up the steep "bohereen"<note>A
               bohereen is a variant version of the word boreen which means a country lane that is
               narrow in width.<lb/>Source.<lb/>Definition of BOREEN.
               https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boreen. Accessed 2 May 2018.</note> whose
            banks were overgrown with thorn and brambles, and stooping under her burden, re-entered
            the door, where her dark-haired daughter Nell met her with a welcome, and relieved her
            of her hamper.</p>
         <p><persName ref="#Mary_Ryan">Moll Ryan</persName> looked round with a sigh of relief, and
            drying her forehead, uttered the Munster<note>Munster is a province of Ireland named
               after and almost in the exact location of the ancient kingdom named Munster which
               existed between the 4th and 12th century.<lb/>Source<lb/>Maciamo. “Munster.” Eupedia,
               https://ftp.vitamodularis.org/ireland/munster.shtml. Accessed 2 May 2018. </note>
            ejaculation:</p>
         <p>"Eiah, wisha<note>No definition for what this means could be found; however, it is
               assumed that it is an exclamation.</note>! It's tired I am with it, God bless it. And
            where's the <choice>
               <orig>craythurs</orig>
               <reg>children</reg>
            </choice>, Nell?"</p>
         <p>"Playin' out on the road, mother; didn't ye see them and you comin' up?"</p>
         <p>"No; there was no one before me on the road," she said, uneasily; "not a soul, Nell; and
            why didn't ye keep an eye on them?"</p>
         <p>Well, they're in the haggard, playin' there, or round by the back o' the house. Will I
            call them in?"</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw><hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi> 77</fw>
         <p>"Do so, good girl, in the name o' God. The hens is comin' home, see, and the sun was
            just down over <placeName ref="#Knockdoula">Knockdoulah</placeName>, an' I comin'
            up."</p>
         <p>So out ran tall, dark-haired Nell, and standing on the road, looking up and down it; but
            not a sign of her two little brothers, Con and <persName ref="#Bill">Bill</persName>, or
            her little sister, Peg, could she see. She called them; but no answer came from the
            little haggard, fenced with straggling bushes. She listened, but the sound of their
            voices was missing. Over the stile<note>A stile is a set of steps, usually two, that are
               used to cross a wall or fence. They are typically used between
               fields.<lb/>Source<lb/>Stile Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.
               https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/stile. Accessed 2 May 2018.
            </note>, and behind the house she ran - but there all was silent and deserted.</p>
         <p>She looked down toward the bog, as far as she could see; but they did not appear. Again
            she listened - but in vain. At first she felt angry, but now a different feeling
            overcame her, and she grew pale. With an undefined boding she looked toward the heathy
            boss of <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura">Lisnavoura</placeName>, now darkening into the
            deepest purple against the flaming sky of sunset.</p>
         <p>Again she listened with a sinking heart, and heard nothing but the farewell twitter and
            whistle of the birds in bushes around. How many stories had she listened to by the
            winter hearth, of children stolen by the fairies, at nightfall, in lonely places! With
            this fear she knew her mother was haunted.</p>
         <p>No one in the country round gathered her little flock about her so early as this
            frightened widow, and no door "in the seven parishes" was barred so early.</p>
         <p>Sufficiently fearful, as all young people in that part of the world are of such dreaded
            and subtle agents, Nell was even more than usually afraid of them, for her terrors were
            infected and redoubled by her mother's. She was looking toward <placeName
               ref="#Lisnavoura">Lisnavoura</placeName> in a trance of fear, and crossed herself
            again and again, and whispered prayer after prayer. She was interrupted by her mother's
            voice</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw>78 <hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with thge Fairies</hi></fw>
         <p>on the road calling her loudly. She answered and ran round to the front of the cabin,
            where she found her standing.</p>
         <p>"And where in the world's the <choice>
               <orig>craythurs</orig>
               <reg>children</reg>
            </choice>-did ye see sight o' them anywhere?" cried Mrs. Ryan, and the girl came over
            the stile.</p>
         <p>"Arrah! mother, 'tis only what they're run down the road a bit. We'll see them this
            minute coming back. It's like the goats they are, climbin' here and runnin' there; an'
            if I had them here, in my hand, maybe I wouldn't give them a hiding all round."</p>
         <p>"May the Lord forgive you, Nell! the <choice>
               <orig>childhers</orig>
               <reg>children</reg>
            </choice> gone. They're took, and not a soul near us, and Father Tom three miles away!
            And what'll I do, or who's to help us this night? Oh, wirristhru, wirristhru<note>There
               was no translation or definition for this word. It is assumed that it is some from of
               exclamation.</note>! The <choice>
               <orig>craythurs</orig>
               <reg>children</reg>
            </choice> is gone!"</p>
         <p>Whisht<note>This is an Irish word meaning hush that was often used to make others
               silent.<lb/>Source<lb/>Definition of WHISHT.
               https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whisht. Accessed 2 May 2018. </note>,
            mother, be <choice>
               <orig>aisy</orig>
               <reg>easy</reg>
            </choice>; don't ye see them comin' up."</p>
         <p>And then she shouted in menacing accents, waving her arm, and beckoning the children,
            who were seen approaching on the road, which some little way off made a slight dip,
            which had concealed them. They were approaching from the westward, and from the
            direction of the dreaded hill of <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura"
            >Lisnavourna</placeName>.</p>
         <p>But there were only two of the children, and one of them, the little girl, was crying.
            Their mother and sister hurried foward to meet them, more alarmed than ever.</p>
         <p>"Where is <persName ref="#Bill">Billy</persName> - where is he?" cried the mother,
            nearly breathless, so soon as she was within hearing.</p>
         <p>"He's gone - they look him away; but they said he'll come back again," answered little
            Con, with the dark brown hair.</p>
         <p>"He's gone away with the grand ladies," blubbered the little girl.</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw><hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi> 79</fw>
         <p>"What ladies - where? Oh <persName ref="#Bill">Leum</persName>, asthora<note>This is an
               Irish word and a name typically given to girls which means someone who is dearly
               loved<lb/>Source<lb/>Asthora Girl Meaning and Origin (UPDATED 2017).
               http://www.joyofbaby.com/meaning/name/Asthora/girl. Accessed 2 May 2018.</note>! My
            darlin', are you gone away at last? Where is he? Who took him? What ladies are you
            talkin' about? What way did he go?" she cried in distraction.</p>
         <p>"I couldn't see where he went, mother; 'twas like as if he was going to Lisnavoura."</p>
         <p>With a wild exclamation the distracted woman ran on towards the hill alone, clapping her
            hands, and crying aloud the name of her lost child.</p>
         <p>Scared and horrified, Nell, not daring to follow, gazed after her, and burst into tears;
            and the other children raised high their lamentations in shrill rivalry.</p>
         <p>Twilight was deepening. It was long past the time when they were usually barred securely
            within their habitation. Nell led the younger children into the cabin, and made them sit
            down by the turf fire, while she stood in the open doorm watching in great fear for the
            return of her mother.</p>
         <p>After a long while they did see their mother return. She came in and sat down by the
            fire, and cried as if her heart would break.</p>
         <p>"Will I bar the <choice>
               <orig>doore</orig>
               <reg>door</reg>
            </choice>, mother?" asked Nell.</p>
         <p>"Ay, do - didn't I lose enough, this night, without <choice>
               <orig>lavin'</orig>
               <reg>leaving</reg>
            </choice> the <choice>
               <orig>doore</orig>
               <reg>door</reg>
            </choice> open, for more o' yez to go; but first tale an' sprinkle a dust o' holy waters
            over ye, acuishla<note>A slightly different spelling of the word acushla which its an
               affectionate form of addressing someone.<lb/>Source<lb/>“Acushla | Definition of
               Acushla in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English,
               https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/acushla. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018. </note>,
            and bring it here till I throw a taste iv it over myself and the <choice>
               <orig>craythurs</orig>
               <reg>children</reg>
            </choice>; an' I wondher, Nell, you'd forget to do the like yourself, lettin' the <choice>
               <orig>craythurs</orig>
               <reg>children</reg>
            </choice> out so near nightfall. Come here and sit on my knees, asthora<note>This is an
               Irish word and a name typically given to girls which means someone who is dearly
               loved<lb/>Source<lb/>Asthora Girl Meaning and Origin (UPDATED 2017).
               http://www.joyofbaby.com/meaning/name/Asthora/girl. Accessed 2 May 2018.</note>, come
            to me, mavourneen<note>An Irish word meaning my darling.<lb/>Source<lb/>Definition of
               MAVOURNEEN. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mavourneen. Accessed 5 Apr.
               2018. </note>, and hould me fast, in the name o' God, and I'll hould you fast that
            none can take yez from me, and tell me all about it, and what it was - the Lord between
            us and harm - an' how it happened, and who in it."</p>
         <p>And the door being barred, the two children, sometimes speaking together, often
            interrupting one another, often</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw>80 <hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi></fw>
         <p>interrupted by their mother, managed to tell this strange story, which I had better
            relate connectedly and in my own language.</p>
         <p>The <persName ref="#Mary_Ryan">Widow Ryan</persName>'s three children were playing, as I
            have said, upon the narrow old road in front of her door. Little <persName ref="#Bill"
               >Bill or Leum</persName>, about five years old with golden hair and large blue eyes,
            was a very pretty boy, with all the clear tints of healthy childhood, and that gaze of
            earnest simplicity which belongs not to town children of the same age. His little sister
            Peg, about a year elder, and his brother Con, a little more than a year elder than she,
            made up the little group.</p>
         <p>Under the great old ash-trees, whose last leaves were falling at their feet, in the
            light of an October sunset, they were playing with the hilarity and eagerness of rustic
            children, clamouring together, and their faces were turned toward the west and storied
               <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura">Lisnavoura</placeName>.</p>
         <p>Suddenly a startling voice with a screech called to them from behind, ordering them to
            get out of the way, and turning, they saw a sight, such as they never beheld before. It
            was a carriage drawn by four horses that were pawing and snorting, in impatience, as if
            just pulled up. The children were almost under their feet, and scrambled to the side of
            the road next their own door.</p>
         <p>This carriage and all its appointments were old-fashioned and gorgeous, and presented to
            the children, who had never seen anything finer than a turf car, and once, an old chaise
            that passed that way from <placeName ref="Killaloe">Killaloe</placeName>, a spectacle
            perfectly dazzling.</p>
         <p>Here was antique splendour. The harness and trappings were scarlet, and blazing with
            gold. The horses were huge, and snow white, with great manes, that as they tossed and
            shook them in the air, seemed to stream and float sometimes longer and sometimes
            shorter, like so much smoke - </p>
         <pb/>
         <fw><hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi> 81</fw>
         <p>their tails were long, and tied up in bows of broad scarlet and gold ribbon. The coach
            itself was glowing with colours, gilded and emblazoned. There were footmen in gay
               liveries<note>Liveries are uniforms that are worn either by servants or
               officials.<lb/>Source<lb/>Livery Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary.
               https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/livery. Accessed 2 May 2018.
            </note>, and three-cocked hats, like the coachman's; but he had a great wig, like a
            judge's, and their hair was frizzed out powdered, and a long thick "pigtail," with a bow
            to it, hung down the back of each.</p>
         <p>All these servants were diminutive, and ludicrously out of proportion with enormous
            horses of the equipage, and had sharp, sallow features, and small, restless fiery eyes,
            and faces of cunning and malice that chilled the children. The little coachman was
            scowling and showing his white fangs under his cocked hat, and his little blazing beads
            of eyes were quivering with fury in their sockets as he whirled his whip round and round
            over their heads, till the lash of it looked like a streak of fire in the evening sun,
            and sounded like the cry of a legion of "fillapoueeks"<note>No definition could be found
               for the meaning of this word.</note> in the air.</p>
         <p>"Stop the princess on the highway!" cried the couchman, in a piercing treble.</p>
         <p>"Stop the princess on the highway!" piped each footman in turn, scowling over his
            shoulder down on the children, and grinding his keen teeth.</p>
         <p>The children were so frightened they could only gape and turn white in their panic. But
            a very sweet voice from the open window of the carriage reassured them, and arrested the
            attack of the lackeys.</p>
         <p>A beautiful and "very grand-looking" lady was smiling from it on them, and they felt
            pleased in the strange light of that smile.</p>
         <p>"The boy with the golden hair, I think," said the lady, bending her large wonderfully
            clear eyes on the little <persName ref="#Bill">Leum</persName>.</p>
         <p>The upper sides of the carriage were chiefly of glass, so</p>
         <fw>L.F. F</fw>
         <pb/>
         <fw>82 <hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi></fw>
         <p>that the children could see another woman inside, whom they did not like so well.</p>
         <p>This was a black woman, with a wonderfully long neck, hung round with many strings of
            large variously-coloured beads, and on her head was a sort of turban of silk striped
            with all the colours of the rainbow, and fixed in it was a golden star.</p>
         <p>This black woman had a face as thin almost as a death's-head, with high cheek-bones, and
            great goggle eyes, the whites of which, as well as her wide range of teeth, showed in
            brilliant contrast with her skin, as she looked over the beautiful lady's shoulder, and
            whispered something in her ear.</p>
         <p>"Yes; the boy with the golden hair, I think," repeated the lady.</p>
         <p>And her voice sounded sweet as a silver bell in the chilren's ears, and her smile
            beguiled them like the light of an enchanted lamp, as she leaned from the window with a
            look of ineffable fondness on the golden-haired boy, with the large blue eyes; insomuch
            that little <persName ref="#Bill">Billy</persName>, looking up, smiled in return with a
            wondering fondness, and when she stooped down, and stretched her jewelled arms towards
            him, he stetched his little hands up, and how they touched the other children did not
            know; but, saying, "Come and give me a kiss, my darling," she raised him, and he seemed
            to ascend in her small fingers as lightly as a feather, and she held him in her lap and
            covered him with kisses.</p>
         <p>Nothing daunted, the other children would have been only too happy to change places with
            their favoured little brother. There was only one thing that was unpleasant, and a
            little frightened them, and that was the black woman, who stood and stretched forward,
            in the carriage as before. She gathered a rich silk and gold handkerchief that was in
            her fingers up to her lips, and seemed to thrust ever so</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw><hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Faires</hi> 83</fw>
         <p>much of it, fold after fold, into her capacious mouth, as they thought to smother her
            laughter, with which she seemed convulsed, for she was shaking and quivering, as it
            seemed, with suppressed merriment; but her eyes, which remained uncovered, looked
            angrier than they had ever seen eyes look before.</p>
         <p>But the lady was so beautiful they looked in her instead, and she continued to caress
            and kiss the little boy on her knee; and smiling at the other children she held up a
            large russet apple in her fingers, and the carriage began to move slowly on, and with a
            nod inviting them to take the fruit, she dropped it on the road from the window; it
            rolled some way beside the wheels, they followed, and then she dropped another, and then
            another, and so on. And the same thing happened to all; for just as either of the
            children who ran beside had caught the rolling apple, somehow it slipt into a hole or
            ran into a ditch, and looking up they saw the lady drop another from the window, and so
            the chase was taken up and continued till they got, hardly knowing how far they had
            gone, to the old crossroad that leads to Owney. It seemed that there the horses' hoofs
            and carriage wheels rolled up a wonderful dust, which being caught in one of those
            eddies that whirl the dust up into a column, one the calmest day, enveloped the children
            for a moment, and passed whirling on towards <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura"
               >Lisnavoura</placeName>, the carriage, as they fancied, driving in the centre of it;
            but suddenly it subsided, the straws and leaves floated to the ground, the dust
            dissipated itself, but the white horses and the lackeys, the gilded carriage, the lady
            and their little golden-haired brother were gone.</p>
         <p>At the same moment suddenly the upper rim of the clear setting sun disappeared behind
            the hill of <placeName ref="#Knockdoula">Knockdoula</placeName>, and it was twilight.
            Each child felt the transition</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw>84 <hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi></fw>
         <p>like a shock - and the sight of the rounded summit of <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura"
               >Lisnavoura</placeName>, now closely overhanging them, struck them with a new
            fear.</p>
         <p>They screamed their brother's name after him, but their cries were lost in the vacant
            air. At the same time they thought they heard a hollow voice say, close to them, "Go
            home."</p>
         <p>Looking round and seeing no one, they were scared, and hand in hand - the little girl
            crying wildly, and the boy white as ashes, from fear, they trotted homeward, at their
            best speed, to tell, as we have seen, their strange story.</p>
         <p><persName ref="#Mary_Ryan">Molly Ryan</persName> never more saw her darling. But
            something of the lost little boy was seen by this former playmates.</p>
         <p>Sometimes when their mother was away earning a trifle at hay-making, and Nelly washing
            the potatoes for their dinner, or "beatling" clothes in the little stream that flows in
            the hollow close by, they saw the pretty face of little <persName ref="#Bill"
               >Billy</persName> peeping in archly at the door, and smiling silently at thm, and as
            they ran to embrace him, with cries of delight, he drew back, still smiling archly, and
            when they got out into the open day, he was gone, and they could see no trace of him
            anywhere.</p>
         <p>This happened often, with slight variations in the circumstances of the visit. Sometimes
            he would peep for a longer time, sometimes for a shorter time, sometimes his little hand
            would come in, and, with bended finger, beckon them to follow; but always he was smiling
            with the same arch look and wary silence - and always he was gone when they reached the
            door. Gradually these visits grew less and less frequent, and in about eight months they
            ceased altogether, and little <persName ref="#Bill">Billy</persName>, irretrievably
            lost, took rank in their memories with the dead.</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw><hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi> 85</fw>
         <p>One wintry morning, nearly a year and a half after his disappearance, their mother
            having set out for <placeName ref="#Limerick">Limerick</placeName> soon after cock-crow,
            to sell some fowls at the market, the little girl, lying by the side of her elder
            sister, who was fast asleep, just at the grey of the morning heard the latch lifted
            softly, and saw little <persName ref="#Bill">Billy</persName> enter and close the door
            gently after him. There was a light enough to see that he was barefoot and ragged, and
            looked pale and famished. He went straight to the fire, and cowered over the turf
            embers, and rubbed his hands slowly, and seemed to shiver as he gathered the smouldering
            turf together.</p>
         <p>The little girl clutched her sister in terror and whispered,</p>
         <p>"Waken Nelly, waken; here's <persName ref="#Bill">Billy</persName> come back!"</p>
         <p>Nelly slept soundly on, but the little boy, whose hands were extended close over the
            coals, turned and looked toward the bed, it seemed to her, in fear, and she saw the
            glare of the embers reflected on his thin cheek as he turned toward her. He rose and
            went, on tiptoe, quickly to the door, in silence, and let himself out as softly as he
            had come in.</p>
         <p>After that, the little boy was never seen any more by any one of his kindred.</p>
         <p>"Fairy doctors," as the dealers in the preternatural, who in such cases were called in,
            are termed, did all that in them lay - but in vain. Father Tom came down, and tried what
            holier rites could do, but equally without result. So little <persName ref="#Bill"
               >Billy</persName> was dead to mother, brother, and sisters; but no grave received
            him. Others whom affection cherished, lay in holy ground, in the old church-yard of
            Abington, with headstone to mark the spot over which the survivor might kneel and say a
            kind prayer for the peace of the departed soul. But there was no landmark to show where
            little <persName ref="#Bill">Billy</persName> was hidden from their loving eyes, unless
            it was in the old hill of <placeName ref="#Lisnavoura">Lisnavoura</placeName>, that cast
            its</p>
         <pb/>
         <fw>86 <hi rend="uppercase">Child that Went with the Fairies</hi></fw>
         <p>long shadow at sunset before the cabin-door; or that, white and filmy in the moonlight,
            in later years, would occupy his brother's gaze as he returned from fair or market, and
            draw from him a sigh and a prayer for the little brother he had lost so long ago, and
            was never to see again.</p>
      </body>
   </text>
</TEI>
The Child that Went with the Fairies with Notes for Clarification

Original basetext publication by G. Bell and Sons, LTD. London in 1924. This publication was created for Digital Editing at UNH.

This was taken from a book titled Madam Crowl's Ghost and other Tales of Mystery by J.S. Le Fanu collected and edited by M.R. James. This was published by G. Bell and Sons, LTD. in London in 1924. This is the reprint version printed in April of 1924. The original was printed in November of 1923, as noted on the first pages of the book.

4 The Child that Went with the Fairies

Anonymous in All the Year Round (1869-1870). Readers of "Carmilla" in In a Glass Darkly will recognize the negro woman in the coach.

Eastward of the old city of Limerick, about ten Irish miles under the range of mountains known as the Slieveelim hills, famous as having afforded Sarsfield shelter among their rocks and hollows, when he crossed them in his gallant descent upon the cannon and ammunition of King William, on its way to the beleaguering army, there runs a very old narrow road. It connects the Limerick road to Tipperary with the old road from Limerick to Dublin, and runs by bog and pasture, hill and hollow, straw-thatched village, and roofless castle, not far from twenty miles.

Skirting the heathy01 In this use, health means shrubby and evergreen plants that grow on poor soil which is otherwise barren, usually acidic and poorly drained. These plants are typically have needle-like leaves in whorls and clusters of small flowers.Source. Definition of HEATH. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heath. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. mountains of which I have spoken, at one part it becomes singularly lonley. For more than three Irish miles02 An Irish mile, is longer than the standard mile. It was defined as 6,720 feet where the standard mile, called the statute mile, is 5,280 miles. The Irish mile had already been established in 1592 when Queen Elizabeth I passed a law defined the statute mile necessary for both commercial and legal reasons. Specifically, it made it easier to tax land accurately.Source.Irish Mile. http://www.askaboutireland.ie/narrative-notes/irish-mile/. Accessed 1 May 2018. it traverses a deserted country. A wide, black bog, level as a lake, skirted with copse03 A grouping or thicket of small trees.Source.Definition of COPSE. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copse. Accessed 2 May 2018. spreads at the left, as you journey northward, and the long and irregular line of mountain rises at the right, clothed in heath04 In this usage, heath means shrubby and evergreen plants that grow on poor soil which is otherwise barren, usually acidic and poorly drained.Source.Definition of HEATH. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heath. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. , broken with lines of grey rock that resemble the bold and irregular outlines of fortifications, and riven with

74 The Child that went with the Fairies 75

many a gully, expanding here and there into rocky and wooded glens, which open as they approach the road.

A scanty pasturage, on which browsed a few scattered sheep or kine05 Kine is the old archaic plural of cow.Source.Definition of KINE. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kine. Accessed 2 May 2018. , skirts this solitary road for some miles, and under shelter of a hillock, and of two or three great ash-trees, stood, not many years ago, the little thatched cabin of a widow named Mary Ryan.

Poor was this widow in a land of poverty. The thatch had acquired the grey tint and sunken outlines, that show how the alternations of rain and sun have told upon that perishable shelter.

But whatever other dangers threatened, there was one well provided against by the care of other times. Round the cabin stood half a dozen mountain ashes, as the rowans, inimical to witches, are there called. On the worn planks of the door were nailed two horse-shoes, and over the lintel and spreading along the thatch, grew, luxuriant, patches of that ancient cure for many maladies, and prophylactic against the machinations of the evil one, the house-leek. Descending into the doorway, in the chiaroscuro06 This is a term for the representation of light and shade in artwork, specifically pictoral arts. It also means being veiled or shadowed.SourceChiaroscuro | Definition of Chiaroscuro by Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chiaroscuro. Accessed 2 May 2018. of the interior, when your eye grow sufficiently accustomed to that dim light, you might discover, hanging at the head of the widow's wooden-roofed bed, her beads and a phial07 Another word for vial.SourceDefinition of PHIAL. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phial. Accessed 2 May 2018. of holy water.

Here certainly were defences and bulwarks08 A bulwark is something, either physical or not, that protects a person against something dangerous or uncomfortable.SourceBulwark Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bulwark. Accessed 2 May 2018. against the intrusion of the unearthly and evil power, of whose vicinity this solitary family were constantly reminded by the outline of Lisnavoura, that lonely hill-haunt of the "Good people," as the fairies were called euphemistically, whose strangely dome-like summit rose not half a mile away, looking like an outwork of the long line of mountain that sweeps by it.

It was at the fall of the leaf, and an autumnal sunset threw the lengthening shadow of haunted Lisnavoura,

76 Child that Went with the Fairies

close in front of the solitary little cabin, over the undulating slopes and sides of Slieveelim. The birds were singing among the branches in the thinning leaves of the melancholy ash-trees that grew at the roadside in front of the door. The widow's three younger children were playing on the road, and their voices mingled with the evening song of the birds. Their older sister, Nell, was "within in the house," as their phrase is, seeing after the boiling of the potatoes for supper.

Their mother had gone down to the bog, to carry up a hamper of turf on her back. Is is, or was at least, a charitable custom - and if not disused, long may it continue - for the wealthier people when cutting their turf and stacking it in the bog, to make a smaller stack for the behoof of the poor who were welcome to take from it so long as it lasted, and thus the potato pot was kept boiling, and the hearth warm that would have been cold enough but for that good-natured bounty, through wintry months.

Moll Ryan trudged up the steep "bohereen"09 A bohereen is a variant version of the word boreen which means a country lane that is narrow in width.Source.Definition of BOREEN. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boreen. Accessed 2 May 2018. whose banks were overgrown with thorn and brambles, and stooping under her burden, re-entered the door, where her dark-haired daughter Nell met her with a welcome, and relieved her of her hamper.

Moll Ryan looked round with a sigh of relief, and drying her forehead, uttered the Munster10 Munster is a province of Ireland named after and almost in the exact location of the ancient kingdom named Munster which existed between the 4th and 12th century.SourceMaciamo. “Munster.” Eupedia, https://ftp.vitamodularis.org/ireland/munster.shtml. Accessed 2 May 2018. ejaculation:

"Eiah, wisha11 No definition for what this means could be found; however, it is assumed that it is an exclamation.! It's tired I am with it, God bless it. And where's the craythurs children , Nell?"

"Playin' out on the road, mother; didn't ye see them and you comin' up?"

"No; there was no one before me on the road," she said, uneasily; "not a soul, Nell; and why didn't ye keep an eye on them?"

Well, they're in the haggard, playin' there, or round by the back o' the house. Will I call them in?"

Child that Went with the Fairies 77

"Do so, good girl, in the name o' God. The hens is comin' home, see, and the sun was just down over Knockdoulah, an' I comin' up."

So out ran tall, dark-haired Nell, and standing on the road, looking up and down it; but not a sign of her two little brothers, Con and Bill, or her little sister, Peg, could she see. She called them; but no answer came from the little haggard, fenced with straggling bushes. She listened, but the sound of their voices was missing. Over the stile12 A stile is a set of steps, usually two, that are used to cross a wall or fence. They are typically used between fields.SourceStile Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/stile. Accessed 2 May 2018. , and behind the house she ran - but there all was silent and deserted.

She looked down toward the bog, as far as she could see; but they did not appear. Again she listened - but in vain. At first she felt angry, but now a different feeling overcame her, and she grew pale. With an undefined boding she looked toward the heathy boss of Lisnavoura, now darkening into the deepest purple against the flaming sky of sunset.

Again she listened with a sinking heart, and heard nothing but the farewell twitter and whistle of the birds in bushes around. How many stories had she listened to by the winter hearth, of children stolen by the fairies, at nightfall, in lonely places! With this fear she knew her mother was haunted.

No one in the country round gathered her little flock about her so early as this frightened widow, and no door "in the seven parishes" was barred so early.

Sufficiently fearful, as all young people in that part of the world are of such dreaded and subtle agents, Nell was even more than usually afraid of them, for her terrors were infected and redoubled by her mother's. She was looking toward Lisnavoura in a trance of fear, and crossed herself again and again, and whispered prayer after prayer. She was interrupted by her mother's voice

78 Child that Went with thge Fairies

on the road calling her loudly. She answered and ran round to the front of the cabin, where she found her standing.

"And where in the world's the craythurs children -did ye see sight o' them anywhere?" cried Mrs. Ryan, and the girl came over the stile.

"Arrah! mother, 'tis only what they're run down the road a bit. We'll see them this minute coming back. It's like the goats they are, climbin' here and runnin' there; an' if I had them here, in my hand, maybe I wouldn't give them a hiding all round."

"May the Lord forgive you, Nell! the childhers children gone. They're took, and not a soul near us, and Father Tom three miles away! And what'll I do, or who's to help us this night? Oh, wirristhru, wirristhru13 There was no translation or definition for this word. It is assumed that it is some from of exclamation.! The craythurs children is gone!"

Whisht14 This is an Irish word meaning hush that was often used to make others silent.SourceDefinition of WHISHT. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whisht. Accessed 2 May 2018. , mother, be aisy easy ; don't ye see them comin' up."

And then she shouted in menacing accents, waving her arm, and beckoning the children, who were seen approaching on the road, which some little way off made a slight dip, which had concealed them. They were approaching from the westward, and from the direction of the dreaded hill of Lisnavourna.

But there were only two of the children, and one of them, the little girl, was crying. Their mother and sister hurried foward to meet them, more alarmed than ever.

"Where is Billy - where is he?" cried the mother, nearly breathless, so soon as she was within hearing.

"He's gone - they look him away; but they said he'll come back again," answered little Con, with the dark brown hair.

"He's gone away with the grand ladies," blubbered the little girl.

Child that Went with the Fairies 79

"What ladies - where? Oh Leum, asthora15 This is an Irish word and a name typically given to girls which means someone who is dearly lovedSourceAsthora Girl Meaning and Origin (UPDATED 2017). http://www.joyofbaby.com/meaning/name/Asthora/girl. Accessed 2 May 2018.! My darlin', are you gone away at last? Where is he? Who took him? What ladies are you talkin' about? What way did he go?" she cried in distraction.

"I couldn't see where he went, mother; 'twas like as if he was going to Lisnavoura."

With a wild exclamation the distracted woman ran on towards the hill alone, clapping her hands, and crying aloud the name of her lost child.

Scared and horrified, Nell, not daring to follow, gazed after her, and burst into tears; and the other children raised high their lamentations in shrill rivalry.

Twilight was deepening. It was long past the time when they were usually barred securely within their habitation. Nell led the younger children into the cabin, and made them sit down by the turf fire, while she stood in the open doorm watching in great fear for the return of her mother.

After a long while they did see their mother return. She came in and sat down by the fire, and cried as if her heart would break.

"Will I bar the doore door , mother?" asked Nell.

"Ay, do - didn't I lose enough, this night, without lavin' leaving the doore door open, for more o' yez to go; but first tale an' sprinkle a dust o' holy waters over ye, acuishla16 A slightly different spelling of the word acushla which its an affectionate form of addressing someone.Source“Acushla | Definition of Acushla in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/acushla. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018. , and bring it here till I throw a taste iv it over myself and the craythurs children ; an' I wondher, Nell, you'd forget to do the like yourself, lettin' the craythurs children out so near nightfall. Come here and sit on my knees, asthora17 This is an Irish word and a name typically given to girls which means someone who is dearly lovedSourceAsthora Girl Meaning and Origin (UPDATED 2017). http://www.joyofbaby.com/meaning/name/Asthora/girl. Accessed 2 May 2018., come to me, mavourneen18 An Irish word meaning my darling.SourceDefinition of MAVOURNEEN. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mavourneen. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018. , and hould me fast, in the name o' God, and I'll hould you fast that none can take yez from me, and tell me all about it, and what it was - the Lord between us and harm - an' how it happened, and who in it."

And the door being barred, the two children, sometimes speaking together, often interrupting one another, often

80 Child that Went with the Fairies

interrupted by their mother, managed to tell this strange story, which I had better relate connectedly and in my own language.

The Widow Ryan's three children were playing, as I have said, upon the narrow old road in front of her door. Little Bill or Leum, about five years old with golden hair and large blue eyes, was a very pretty boy, with all the clear tints of healthy childhood, and that gaze of earnest simplicity which belongs not to town children of the same age. His little sister Peg, about a year elder, and his brother Con, a little more than a year elder than she, made up the little group.

Under the great old ash-trees, whose last leaves were falling at their feet, in the light of an October sunset, they were playing with the hilarity and eagerness of rustic children, clamouring together, and their faces were turned toward the west and storied Lisnavoura.

Suddenly a startling voice with a screech called to them from behind, ordering them to get out of the way, and turning, they saw a sight, such as they never beheld before. It was a carriage drawn by four horses that were pawing and snorting, in impatience, as if just pulled up. The children were almost under their feet, and scrambled to the side of the road next their own door.

This carriage and all its appointments were old-fashioned and gorgeous, and presented to the children, who had never seen anything finer than a turf car, and once, an old chaise that passed that way from Killaloe, a spectacle perfectly dazzling.

Here was antique splendour. The harness and trappings were scarlet, and blazing with gold. The horses were huge, and snow white, with great manes, that as they tossed and shook them in the air, seemed to stream and float sometimes longer and sometimes shorter, like so much smoke -

Child that Went with the Fairies 81

their tails were long, and tied up in bows of broad scarlet and gold ribbon. The coach itself was glowing with colours, gilded and emblazoned. There were footmen in gay liveries19 Liveries are uniforms that are worn either by servants or officials.SourceLivery Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/livery. Accessed 2 May 2018. , and three-cocked hats, like the coachman's; but he had a great wig, like a judge's, and their hair was frizzed out powdered, and a long thick "pigtail," with a bow to it, hung down the back of each.

All these servants were diminutive, and ludicrously out of proportion with enormous horses of the equipage, and had sharp, sallow features, and small, restless fiery eyes, and faces of cunning and malice that chilled the children. The little coachman was scowling and showing his white fangs under his cocked hat, and his little blazing beads of eyes were quivering with fury in their sockets as he whirled his whip round and round over their heads, till the lash of it looked like a streak of fire in the evening sun, and sounded like the cry of a legion of "fillapoueeks"20 No definition could be found for the meaning of this word. in the air.

"Stop the princess on the highway!" cried the couchman, in a piercing treble.

"Stop the princess on the highway!" piped each footman in turn, scowling over his shoulder down on the children, and grinding his keen teeth.

The children were so frightened they could only gape and turn white in their panic. But a very sweet voice from the open window of the carriage reassured them, and arrested the attack of the lackeys.

A beautiful and "very grand-looking" lady was smiling from it on them, and they felt pleased in the strange light of that smile.

"The boy with the golden hair, I think," said the lady, bending her large wonderfully clear eyes on the little Leum.

The upper sides of the carriage were chiefly of glass, so

L.F. F 82 Child that Went with the Fairies

that the children could see another woman inside, whom they did not like so well.

This was a black woman, with a wonderfully long neck, hung round with many strings of large variously-coloured beads, and on her head was a sort of turban of silk striped with all the colours of the rainbow, and fixed in it was a golden star.

This black woman had a face as thin almost as a death's-head, with high cheek-bones, and great goggle eyes, the whites of which, as well as her wide range of teeth, showed in brilliant contrast with her skin, as she looked over the beautiful lady's shoulder, and whispered something in her ear.

"Yes; the boy with the golden hair, I think," repeated the lady.

And her voice sounded sweet as a silver bell in the chilren's ears, and her smile beguiled them like the light of an enchanted lamp, as she leaned from the window with a look of ineffable fondness on the golden-haired boy, with the large blue eyes; insomuch that little Billy, looking up, smiled in return with a wondering fondness, and when she stooped down, and stretched her jewelled arms towards him, he stetched his little hands up, and how they touched the other children did not know; but, saying, "Come and give me a kiss, my darling," she raised him, and he seemed to ascend in her small fingers as lightly as a feather, and she held him in her lap and covered him with kisses.

Nothing daunted, the other children would have been only too happy to change places with their favoured little brother. There was only one thing that was unpleasant, and a little frightened them, and that was the black woman, who stood and stretched forward, in the carriage as before. She gathered a rich silk and gold handkerchief that was in her fingers up to her lips, and seemed to thrust ever so

Child that Went with the Faires 83

much of it, fold after fold, into her capacious mouth, as they thought to smother her laughter, with which she seemed convulsed, for she was shaking and quivering, as it seemed, with suppressed merriment; but her eyes, which remained uncovered, looked angrier than they had ever seen eyes look before.

But the lady was so beautiful they looked in her instead, and she continued to caress and kiss the little boy on her knee; and smiling at the other children she held up a large russet apple in her fingers, and the carriage began to move slowly on, and with a nod inviting them to take the fruit, she dropped it on the road from the window; it rolled some way beside the wheels, they followed, and then she dropped another, and then another, and so on. And the same thing happened to all; for just as either of the children who ran beside had caught the rolling apple, somehow it slipt into a hole or ran into a ditch, and looking up they saw the lady drop another from the window, and so the chase was taken up and continued till they got, hardly knowing how far they had gone, to the old crossroad that leads to Owney. It seemed that there the horses' hoofs and carriage wheels rolled up a wonderful dust, which being caught in one of those eddies that whirl the dust up into a column, one the calmest day, enveloped the children for a moment, and passed whirling on towards Lisnavoura, the carriage, as they fancied, driving in the centre of it; but suddenly it subsided, the straws and leaves floated to the ground, the dust dissipated itself, but the white horses and the lackeys, the gilded carriage, the lady and their little golden-haired brother were gone.

At the same moment suddenly the upper rim of the clear setting sun disappeared behind the hill of Knockdoula, and it was twilight. Each child felt the transition

84 Child that Went with the Fairies

like a shock - and the sight of the rounded summit of Lisnavoura, now closely overhanging them, struck them with a new fear.

They screamed their brother's name after him, but their cries were lost in the vacant air. At the same time they thought they heard a hollow voice say, close to them, "Go home."

Looking round and seeing no one, they were scared, and hand in hand - the little girl crying wildly, and the boy white as ashes, from fear, they trotted homeward, at their best speed, to tell, as we have seen, their strange story.

Molly Ryan never more saw her darling. But something of the lost little boy was seen by this former playmates.

Sometimes when their mother was away earning a trifle at hay-making, and Nelly washing the potatoes for their dinner, or "beatling" clothes in the little stream that flows in the hollow close by, they saw the pretty face of little Billy peeping in archly at the door, and smiling silently at thm, and as they ran to embrace him, with cries of delight, he drew back, still smiling archly, and when they got out into the open day, he was gone, and they could see no trace of him anywhere.

This happened often, with slight variations in the circumstances of the visit. Sometimes he would peep for a longer time, sometimes for a shorter time, sometimes his little hand would come in, and, with bended finger, beckon them to follow; but always he was smiling with the same arch look and wary silence - and always he was gone when they reached the door. Gradually these visits grew less and less frequent, and in about eight months they ceased altogether, and little Billy, irretrievably lost, took rank in their memories with the dead.

Child that Went with the Fairies 85

One wintry morning, nearly a year and a half after his disappearance, their mother having set out for Limerick soon after cock-crow, to sell some fowls at the market, the little girl, lying by the side of her elder sister, who was fast asleep, just at the grey of the morning heard the latch lifted softly, and saw little Billy enter and close the door gently after him. There was a light enough to see that he was barefoot and ragged, and looked pale and famished. He went straight to the fire, and cowered over the turf embers, and rubbed his hands slowly, and seemed to shiver as he gathered the smouldering turf together.

The little girl clutched her sister in terror and whispered,

"Waken Nelly, waken; here's Billy come back!"

Nelly slept soundly on, but the little boy, whose hands were extended close over the coals, turned and looked toward the bed, it seemed to her, in fear, and she saw the glare of the embers reflected on his thin cheek as he turned toward her. He rose and went, on tiptoe, quickly to the door, in silence, and let himself out as softly as he had come in.

After that, the little boy was never seen any more by any one of his kindred.

"Fairy doctors," as the dealers in the preternatural, who in such cases were called in, are termed, did all that in them lay - but in vain. Father Tom came down, and tried what holier rites could do, but equally without result. So little Billy was dead to mother, brother, and sisters; but no grave received him. Others whom affection cherished, lay in holy ground, in the old church-yard of Abington, with headstone to mark the spot over which the survivor might kneel and say a kind prayer for the peace of the departed soul. But there was no landmark to show where little Billy was hidden from their loving eyes, unless it was in the old hill of Lisnavoura, that cast its

86 Child that Went with the Fairies

long shadow at sunset before the cabin-door; or that, white and filmy in the moonlight, in later years, would occupy his brother's gaze as he returned from fair or market, and draw from him a sigh and a prayer for the little brother he had lost so long ago, and was never to see again.

Limerick

The city of Limerick is located in the county of Limerick in the west coast of Ireland. The county boarders the counties of Tipperary, Cork, Clare, and Kerry. It is a county and city rich in history. Source About County Limerick Topography, Roots Ireland, Irish Family History Foundation, Online Search Facility – Roots Ireland. http://www.rootsireland.ie/limerick-genealogy/about-limerick/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Sarsfield

Sarsfield held a leading role in the resistance of the Irish Roman Catholic's against King William III of England. This story is specifically referring to his successful attack on King William III while defending Limerick. Source “Patrick Sarsfield | Irish Jacobite.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrick-Sarsfield. Accessed 6 Apr. 2018.

Mary_Ryan

This is the mother within the story who is referenced by different versions of her name throughout the story, including Moll Ryan.

Lisnavoura

This is a fictional hill that appears only in this particular story. It is a hill that is specifically associalted with fairies and is thought to be the home of the fairies within this short story.

Slieveelim

This is most likely referencing the Slieve Felim mountains. There is a walking trail along these hills and mountains called the Slieve Felim Way which spans four different counties ans a total of 23 miles. Source The Slieve Felim Way | Limerick.Ie. https://www.limerick.ie/discover/eat-see-do/sports-recreation/activities/walking-routes/county-limerick-trails/slieve-felim. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Knockdoula

This is a fictional hill that appears only in this particular story. It is close to the fairy hill called Lisnavoura.

Bill

the story as having blonde hair. He is sometimes referred to as Billy or Bill and sometimes referred to as Leum.

Killaloe

This is a town in the county of Clare in Ireland. It is on the Shannon River. Source “Killaloe| Ireland.” Visit Clare | Ireland, https://www.clare.ie/place/killaloe/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018.

Toolbox

Themes:

The Child that Went with the Fairies with Notes for Clarification

Original basetext publication by G. Bell and Sons, LTD. London in 1924. This publication was created for Digital Editing at UNH.

This was taken from a book titled Madam Crowl's Ghost and other Tales of Mystery by J.S. Le Fanu collected and edited by M.R. James. This was published by G. Bell and Sons, LTD. in London in 1924. This is the reprint version printed in April of 1924. The original was printed in November of 1923, as noted on the first pages of the book.

Sarsfield held a leading role in the resistance of the Irish Roman Catholic's against King William III of England. This story is specifically referring to his successful attack on King William III while defending Limerick.Source“Patrick Sarsfield | Irish Jacobite.” Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Patrick-Sarsfield. Accessed 6 Apr. 2018. This is the mother within the story who is referenced by different versions of her name throughout the story, including Moll Ryan. the story as having blonde hair. He is sometimes referred to as Billy or Bill and sometimes referred to as Leum. The city of Limerick is located in the county of Limerick in the west coast of Ireland. The county boarders the counties of Tipperary, Cork, Clare, and Kerry. It is a county and city rich in history.Source About County Limerick Topography, Roots Ireland, Irish Family History Foundation, Online Search Facility – Roots Ireland. http://www.rootsireland.ie/limerick-genealogy/about-limerick/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. This is a fictional hill that appears only in this particular story. It is a hill that is specifically associalted with fairies and is thought to be the home of the fairies within this short story. This is most likely referencing the Slieve Felim mountains. There is a walking trail along these hills and mountains called the Slieve Felim Way which spans four different counties ans a total of 23 miles.Source The Slieve Felim Way | Limerick.Ie. https://www.limerick.ie/discover/eat-see-do/sports-recreation/activities/walking-routes/county-limerick-trails/slieve-felim. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. This is a town in the county of Clare in Ireland. It is on the Shannon River.Source“Killaloe| Ireland.” Visit Clare | Ireland, https://www.clare.ie/place/killaloe/. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. This is a fictional hill that appears only in this particular story. It is close to the fairy hill called Lisnavoura.
4 The Child that Went with the Fairies

Anonymous in All the Year Round (1869-1870). Readers of "Carmilla" in In a Glass Darkly will recognize the negro woman in the coach.

Eastward of the old city of Limerick, about ten Irish miles under the range of mountains known as the Slieveelim hills, famous as having afforded Sarsfield shelter among their rocks and hollows, when he crossed them in his gallant descent upon the cannon and ammunition of King William, on its way to the beleaguering army, there runs a very old narrow road. It connects the Limerick road to Tipperary with the old road from Limerick to Dublin, and runs by bog and pasture, hill and hollow, straw-thatched village, and roofless castle, not far from twenty miles.

Skirting the heathyIn this use, health means shrubby and evergreen plants that grow on poor soil which is otherwise barren, usually acidic and poorly drained. These plants are typically have needle-like leaves in whorls and clusters of small flowers.Source. Definition of HEATH. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heath. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. mountains of which I have spoken, at one part it becomes singularly lonley. For more than three Irish milesAn Irish mile, is longer than the standard mile. It was defined as 6,720 feet where the standard mile, called the statute mile, is 5,280 miles. The Irish mile had already been established in 1592 when Queen Elizabeth I passed a law defined the statute mile necessary for both commercial and legal reasons. Specifically, it made it easier to tax land accurately.Source.Irish Mile. http://www.askaboutireland.ie/narrative-notes/irish-mile/. Accessed 1 May 2018. it traverses a deserted country. A wide, black bog, level as a lake, skirted with copseA grouping or thicket of small trees.Source.Definition of COPSE. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/copse. Accessed 2 May 2018. spreads at the left, as you journey northward, and the long and irregular line of mountain rises at the right, clothed in heathIn this usage, heath means shrubby and evergreen plants that grow on poor soil which is otherwise barren, usually acidic and poorly drained.Source.Definition of HEATH. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/heath. Accessed 13 Apr. 2018. , broken with lines of grey rock that resemble the bold and irregular outlines of fortifications, and riven with

74 The Child that went with the Fairies 75

many a gully, expanding here and there into rocky and wooded glens, which open as they approach the road.

A scanty pasturage, on which browsed a few scattered sheep or kineKine is the old archaic plural of cow.Source.Definition of KINE. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kine. Accessed 2 May 2018. , skirts this solitary road for some miles, and under shelter of a hillock, and of two or three great ash-trees, stood, not many years ago, the little thatched cabin of a widow named Mary Ryan.

Poor was this widow in a land of poverty. The thatch had acquired the grey tint and sunken outlines, that show how the alternations of rain and sun have told upon that perishable shelter.

But whatever other dangers threatened, there was one well provided against by the care of other times. Round the cabin stood half a dozen mountain ashes, as the rowans, inimical to witches, are there called. On the worn planks of the door were nailed two horse-shoes, and over the lintel and spreading along the thatch, grew, luxuriant, patches of that ancient cure for many maladies, and prophylactic against the machinations of the evil one, the house-leek. Descending into the doorway, in the chiaroscuroThis is a term for the representation of light and shade in artwork, specifically pictoral arts. It also means being veiled or shadowed.SourceChiaroscuro | Definition of Chiaroscuro by Merriam-Webster. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chiaroscuro. Accessed 2 May 2018. of the interior, when your eye grow sufficiently accustomed to that dim light, you might discover, hanging at the head of the widow's wooden-roofed bed, her beads and a phialAnother word for vial.SourceDefinition of PHIAL. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/phial. Accessed 2 May 2018. of holy water.

Here certainly were defences and bulwarksA bulwark is something, either physical or not, that protects a person against something dangerous or uncomfortable.SourceBulwark Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/bulwark. Accessed 2 May 2018. against the intrusion of the unearthly and evil power, of whose vicinity this solitary family were constantly reminded by the outline of Lisnavoura, that lonely hill-haunt of the "Good people," as the fairies were called euphemistically, whose strangely dome-like summit rose not half a mile away, looking like an outwork of the long line of mountain that sweeps by it.

It was at the fall of the leaf, and an autumnal sunset threw the lengthening shadow of haunted Lisnavoura,

76 Child that Went with the Fairies

close in front of the solitary little cabin, over the undulating slopes and sides of Slieveelim. The birds were singing among the branches in the thinning leaves of the melancholy ash-trees that grew at the roadside in front of the door. The widow's three younger children were playing on the road, and their voices mingled with the evening song of the birds. Their older sister, Nell, was "within in the house," as their phrase is, seeing after the boiling of the potatoes for supper.

Their mother had gone down to the bog, to carry up a hamper of turf on her back. Is is, or was at least, a charitable custom - and if not disused, long may it continue - for the wealthier people when cutting their turf and stacking it in the bog, to make a smaller stack for the behoof of the poor who were welcome to take from it so long as it lasted, and thus the potato pot was kept boiling, and the hearth warm that would have been cold enough but for that good-natured bounty, through wintry months.

Moll Ryan trudged up the steep "bohereen"A bohereen is a variant version of the word boreen which means a country lane that is narrow in width.Source.Definition of BOREEN. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/boreen. Accessed 2 May 2018. whose banks were overgrown with thorn and brambles, and stooping under her burden, re-entered the door, where her dark-haired daughter Nell met her with a welcome, and relieved her of her hamper.

Moll Ryan looked round with a sigh of relief, and drying her forehead, uttered the MunsterMunster is a province of Ireland named after and almost in the exact location of the ancient kingdom named Munster which existed between the 4th and 12th century.SourceMaciamo. “Munster.” Eupedia, https://ftp.vitamodularis.org/ireland/munster.shtml. Accessed 2 May 2018. ejaculation:

"Eiah, wishaNo definition for what this means could be found; however, it is assumed that it is an exclamation.! It's tired I am with it, God bless it. And where's the craythurs children , Nell?"

"Playin' out on the road, mother; didn't ye see them and you comin' up?"

"No; there was no one before me on the road," she said, uneasily; "not a soul, Nell; and why didn't ye keep an eye on them?"

Well, they're in the haggard, playin' there, or round by the back o' the house. Will I call them in?"

Child that Went with the Fairies 77

"Do so, good girl, in the name o' God. The hens is comin' home, see, and the sun was just down over Knockdoulah, an' I comin' up."

So out ran tall, dark-haired Nell, and standing on the road, looking up and down it; but not a sign of her two little brothers, Con and Bill, or her little sister, Peg, could she see. She called them; but no answer came from the little haggard, fenced with straggling bushes. She listened, but the sound of their voices was missing. Over the stileA stile is a set of steps, usually two, that are used to cross a wall or fence. They are typically used between fields.SourceStile Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/stile. Accessed 2 May 2018. , and behind the house she ran - but there all was silent and deserted.

She looked down toward the bog, as far as she could see; but they did not appear. Again she listened - but in vain. At first she felt angry, but now a different feeling overcame her, and she grew pale. With an undefined boding she looked toward the heathy boss of Lisnavoura, now darkening into the deepest purple against the flaming sky of sunset.

Again she listened with a sinking heart, and heard nothing but the farewell twitter and whistle of the birds in bushes around. How many stories had she listened to by the winter hearth, of children stolen by the fairies, at nightfall, in lonely places! With this fear she knew her mother was haunted.

No one in the country round gathered her little flock about her so early as this frightened widow, and no door "in the seven parishes" was barred so early.

Sufficiently fearful, as all young people in that part of the world are of such dreaded and subtle agents, Nell was even more than usually afraid of them, for her terrors were infected and redoubled by her mother's. She was looking toward Lisnavoura in a trance of fear, and crossed herself again and again, and whispered prayer after prayer. She was interrupted by her mother's voice

78 Child that Went with thge Fairies

on the road calling her loudly. She answered and ran round to the front of the cabin, where she found her standing.

"And where in the world's the craythurs children -did ye see sight o' them anywhere?" cried Mrs. Ryan, and the girl came over the stile.

"Arrah! mother, 'tis only what they're run down the road a bit. We'll see them this minute coming back. It's like the goats they are, climbin' here and runnin' there; an' if I had them here, in my hand, maybe I wouldn't give them a hiding all round."

"May the Lord forgive you, Nell! the childhers children gone. They're took, and not a soul near us, and Father Tom three miles away! And what'll I do, or who's to help us this night? Oh, wirristhru, wirristhruThere was no translation or definition for this word. It is assumed that it is some from of exclamation.! The craythurs children is gone!"

WhishtThis is an Irish word meaning hush that was often used to make others silent.SourceDefinition of WHISHT. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whisht. Accessed 2 May 2018. , mother, be aisy easy ; don't ye see them comin' up."

And then she shouted in menacing accents, waving her arm, and beckoning the children, who were seen approaching on the road, which some little way off made a slight dip, which had concealed them. They were approaching from the westward, and from the direction of the dreaded hill of Lisnavourna.

But there were only two of the children, and one of them, the little girl, was crying. Their mother and sister hurried foward to meet them, more alarmed than ever.

"Where is Billy - where is he?" cried the mother, nearly breathless, so soon as she was within hearing.

"He's gone - they look him away; but they said he'll come back again," answered little Con, with the dark brown hair.

"He's gone away with the grand ladies," blubbered the little girl.

Child that Went with the Fairies 79

"What ladies - where? Oh Leum, asthoraThis is an Irish word and a name typically given to girls which means someone who is dearly lovedSourceAsthora Girl Meaning and Origin (UPDATED 2017). http://www.joyofbaby.com/meaning/name/Asthora/girl. Accessed 2 May 2018.! My darlin', are you gone away at last? Where is he? Who took him? What ladies are you talkin' about? What way did he go?" she cried in distraction.

"I couldn't see where he went, mother; 'twas like as if he was going to Lisnavoura."

With a wild exclamation the distracted woman ran on towards the hill alone, clapping her hands, and crying aloud the name of her lost child.

Scared and horrified, Nell, not daring to follow, gazed after her, and burst into tears; and the other children raised high their lamentations in shrill rivalry.

Twilight was deepening. It was long past the time when they were usually barred securely within their habitation. Nell led the younger children into the cabin, and made them sit down by the turf fire, while she stood in the open doorm watching in great fear for the return of her mother.

After a long while they did see their mother return. She came in and sat down by the fire, and cried as if her heart would break.

"Will I bar the doore door , mother?" asked Nell.

"Ay, do - didn't I lose enough, this night, without lavin' leaving the doore door open, for more o' yez to go; but first tale an' sprinkle a dust o' holy waters over ye, acuishlaA slightly different spelling of the word acushla which its an affectionate form of addressing someone.Source“Acushla | Definition of Acushla in English by Oxford Dictionaries.” Oxford Dictionaries | English, https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/acushla. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018. , and bring it here till I throw a taste iv it over myself and the craythurs children ; an' I wondher, Nell, you'd forget to do the like yourself, lettin' the craythurs children out so near nightfall. Come here and sit on my knees, asthoraThis is an Irish word and a name typically given to girls which means someone who is dearly lovedSourceAsthora Girl Meaning and Origin (UPDATED 2017). http://www.joyofbaby.com/meaning/name/Asthora/girl. Accessed 2 May 2018., come to me, mavourneenAn Irish word meaning my darling.SourceDefinition of MAVOURNEEN. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mavourneen. Accessed 5 Apr. 2018. , and hould me fast, in the name o' God, and I'll hould you fast that none can take yez from me, and tell me all about it, and what it was - the Lord between us and harm - an' how it happened, and who in it."

And the door being barred, the two children, sometimes speaking together, often interrupting one another, often

80 Child that Went with the Fairies

interrupted by their mother, managed to tell this strange story, which I had better relate connectedly and in my own language.

The Widow Ryan's three children were playing, as I have said, upon the narrow old road in front of her door. Little Bill or Leum, about five years old with golden hair and large blue eyes, was a very pretty boy, with all the clear tints of healthy childhood, and that gaze of earnest simplicity which belongs not to town children of the same age. His little sister Peg, about a year elder, and his brother Con, a little more than a year elder than she, made up the little group.

Under the great old ash-trees, whose last leaves were falling at their feet, in the light of an October sunset, they were playing with the hilarity and eagerness of rustic children, clamouring together, and their faces were turned toward the west and storied Lisnavoura.

Suddenly a startling voice with a screech called to them from behind, ordering them to get out of the way, and turning, they saw a sight, such as they never beheld before. It was a carriage drawn by four horses that were pawing and snorting, in impatience, as if just pulled up. The children were almost under their feet, and scrambled to the side of the road next their own door.

This carriage and all its appointments were old-fashioned and gorgeous, and presented to the children, who had never seen anything finer than a turf car, and once, an old chaise that passed that way from Killaloe, a spectacle perfectly dazzling.

Here was antique splendour. The harness and trappings were scarlet, and blazing with gold. The horses were huge, and snow white, with great manes, that as they tossed and shook them in the air, seemed to stream and float sometimes longer and sometimes shorter, like so much smoke -

Child that Went with the Fairies 81

their tails were long, and tied up in bows of broad scarlet and gold ribbon. The coach itself was glowing with colours, gilded and emblazoned. There were footmen in gay liveriesLiveries are uniforms that are worn either by servants or officials.SourceLivery Definition in the Cambridge English Dictionary. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/livery. Accessed 2 May 2018. , and three-cocked hats, like the coachman's; but he had a great wig, like a judge's, and their hair was frizzed out powdered, and a long thick "pigtail," with a bow to it, hung down the back of each.

All these servants were diminutive, and ludicrously out of proportion with enormous horses of the equipage, and had sharp, sallow features, and small, restless fiery eyes, and faces of cunning and malice that chilled the children. The little coachman was scowling and showing his white fangs under his cocked hat, and his little blazing beads of eyes were quivering with fury in their sockets as he whirled his whip round and round over their heads, till the lash of it looked like a streak of fire in the evening sun, and sounded like the cry of a legion of "fillapoueeks"No definition could be found for the meaning of this word. in the air.

"Stop the princess on the highway!" cried the couchman, in a piercing treble.

"Stop the princess on the highway!" piped each footman in turn, scowling over his shoulder down on the children, and grinding his keen teeth.

The children were so frightened they could only gape and turn white in their panic. But a very sweet voice from the open window of the carriage reassured them, and arrested the attack of the lackeys.

A beautiful and "very grand-looking" lady was smiling from it on them, and they felt pleased in the strange light of that smile.

"The boy with the golden hair, I think," said the lady, bending her large wonderfully clear eyes on the little Leum.

The upper sides of the carriage were chiefly of glass, so

L.F. F 82 Child that Went with the Fairies

that the children could see another woman inside, whom they did not like so well.

This was a black woman, with a wonderfully long neck, hung round with many strings of large variously-coloured beads, and on her head was a sort of turban of silk striped with all the colours of the rainbow, and fixed in it was a golden star.

This black woman had a face as thin almost as a death's-head, with high cheek-bones, and great goggle eyes, the whites of which, as well as her wide range of teeth, showed in brilliant contrast with her skin, as she looked over the beautiful lady's shoulder, and whispered something in her ear.

"Yes; the boy with the golden hair, I think," repeated the lady.

And her voice sounded sweet as a silver bell in the chilren's ears, and her smile beguiled them like the light of an enchanted lamp, as she leaned from the window with a look of ineffable fondness on the golden-haired boy, with the large blue eyes; insomuch that little Billy, looking up, smiled in return with a wondering fondness, and when she stooped down, and stretched her jewelled arms towards him, he stetched his little hands up, and how they touched the other children did not know; but, saying, "Come and give me a kiss, my darling," she raised him, and he seemed to ascend in her small fingers as lightly as a feather, and she held him in her lap and covered him with kisses.

Nothing daunted, the other children would have been only too happy to change places with their favoured little brother. There was only one thing that was unpleasant, and a little frightened them, and that was the black woman, who stood and stretched forward, in the carriage as before. She gathered a rich silk and gold handkerchief that was in her fingers up to her lips, and seemed to thrust ever so

Child that Went with the Faires 83

much of it, fold after fold, into her capacious mouth, as they thought to smother her laughter, with which she seemed convulsed, for she was shaking and quivering, as it seemed, with suppressed merriment; but her eyes, which remained uncovered, looked angrier than they had ever seen eyes look before.

But the lady was so beautiful they looked in her instead, and she continued to caress and kiss the little boy on her knee; and smiling at the other children she held up a large russet apple in her fingers, and the carriage began to move slowly on, and with a nod inviting them to take the fruit, she dropped it on the road from the window; it rolled some way beside the wheels, they followed, and then she dropped another, and then another, and so on. And the same thing happened to all; for just as either of the children who ran beside had caught the rolling apple, somehow it slipt into a hole or ran into a ditch, and looking up they saw the lady drop another from the window, and so the chase was taken up and continued till they got, hardly knowing how far they had gone, to the old crossroad that leads to Owney. It seemed that there the horses' hoofs and carriage wheels rolled up a wonderful dust, which being caught in one of those eddies that whirl the dust up into a column, one the calmest day, enveloped the children for a moment, and passed whirling on towards Lisnavoura, the carriage, as they fancied, driving in the centre of it; but suddenly it subsided, the straws and leaves floated to the ground, the dust dissipated itself, but the white horses and the lackeys, the gilded carriage, the lady and their little golden-haired brother were gone.

At the same moment suddenly the upper rim of the clear setting sun disappeared behind the hill of Knockdoula, and it was twilight. Each child felt the transition

84 Child that Went with the Fairies

like a shock - and the sight of the rounded summit of Lisnavoura, now closely overhanging them, struck them with a new fear.

They screamed their brother's name after him, but their cries were lost in the vacant air. At the same time they thought they heard a hollow voice say, close to them, "Go home."

Looking round and seeing no one, they were scared, and hand in hand - the little girl crying wildly, and the boy white as ashes, from fear, they trotted homeward, at their best speed, to tell, as we have seen, their strange story.

Molly Ryan never more saw her darling. But something of the lost little boy was seen by this former playmates.

Sometimes when their mother was away earning a trifle at hay-making, and Nelly washing the potatoes for their dinner, or "beatling" clothes in the little stream that flows in the hollow close by, they saw the pretty face of little Billy peeping in archly at the door, and smiling silently at thm, and as they ran to embrace him, with cries of delight, he drew back, still smiling archly, and when they got out into the open day, he was gone, and they could see no trace of him anywhere.

This happened often, with slight variations in the circumstances of the visit. Sometimes he would peep for a longer time, sometimes for a shorter time, sometimes his little hand would come in, and, with bended finger, beckon them to follow; but always he was smiling with the same arch look and wary silence - and always he was gone when they reached the door. Gradually these visits grew less and less frequent, and in about eight months they ceased altogether, and little Billy, irretrievably lost, took rank in their memories with the dead.

Child that Went with the Fairies 85

One wintry morning, nearly a year and a half after his disappearance, their mother having set out for Limerick soon after cock-crow, to sell some fowls at the market, the little girl, lying by the side of her elder sister, who was fast asleep, just at the grey of the morning heard the latch lifted softly, and saw little Billy enter and close the door gently after him. There was a light enough to see that he was barefoot and ragged, and looked pale and famished. He went straight to the fire, and cowered over the turf embers, and rubbed his hands slowly, and seemed to shiver as he gathered the smouldering turf together.

The little girl clutched her sister in terror and whispered,

"Waken Nelly, waken; here's Billy come back!"

Nelly slept soundly on, but the little boy, whose hands were extended close over the coals, turned and looked toward the bed, it seemed to her, in fear, and she saw the glare of the embers reflected on his thin cheek as he turned toward her. He rose and went, on tiptoe, quickly to the door, in silence, and let himself out as softly as he had come in.

After that, the little boy was never seen any more by any one of his kindred.

"Fairy doctors," as the dealers in the preternatural, who in such cases were called in, are termed, did all that in them lay - but in vain. Father Tom came down, and tried what holier rites could do, but equally without result. So little Billy was dead to mother, brother, and sisters; but no grave received him. Others whom affection cherished, lay in holy ground, in the old church-yard of Abington, with headstone to mark the spot over which the survivor might kneel and say a kind prayer for the peace of the departed soul. But there was no landmark to show where little Billy was hidden from their loving eyes, unless it was in the old hill of Lisnavoura, that cast its

86 Child that Went with the Fairies

long shadow at sunset before the cabin-door; or that, white and filmy in the moonlight, in later years, would occupy his brother's gaze as he returned from fair or market, and draw from him a sigh and a prayer for the little brother he had lost so long ago, and was never to see again.