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Connla and Nora kissed the fairy queen, and Connla, wearing his golden helmet and silken cloak, and carrying his shield and spear, led Nora with him. They passed from the palace through the garden of roses, through the flowery meadow, through the dark gray rocks, until they reached the golden strand; and there, sitting and singing the strange, sweet song, was Liban the Mermaid.
"And how did we grow so tall in one night?" said Connla. "In one night!" said the fairy queen. "One night, indeed! Why, you have been fast asleep, the two of you, for the last seven years!" "And where was the little mother all that time?" said Connla and Nora together. "Oh, the little mother was all right.
Thinking of the music she had heard over night, that she had hummed through and that her father had played on the harpsichord, she said "And you, too, had a beautiful dream when you wrote 'Connla and the Fairy Maiden'?" "Ah, your father showed it to you; you hadn't told me."
Out through the door the pipers marched; out through the door the children followed, and when they crossed the threshold they were treading on clouds of amber, of purple, and of gold. "Oh, Connla," said Nora, "we have walked into the sunset!"
That day they went out into the woods, and they sat beside a stream that pattered along beneath the trees, and through the leaves tossing in the breeze the sun flashed down upon the streamlet, and shadow and sunshine danced upon it. As the children watched the water sparkling where the sunlight fell, Nora said: "Oh, Connla, did you ever see anything so bright and clear and glancing as that?"
"No," said Connla, "and I do believe sweeter music was never heard before." "Ah," said the thrush, "that's because you never heard the nine little pipers playing. And now, Connla and Nora, you saved my life to-day." "It was Nora saved it," said Connla, "for she pointed you out to me, and also pointed out the hawk which was about to pounce on you."
"Now, Connla," said the little man, "catch the bridle in your hands, and you, Nora, clasp Connla round the waist, and close your eyes."
And that night, when they were sitting down by the fire together, you may be sure that in the whole world no people were half as happy as Nora, Connla, and the little mother. A long, long time ago there lived in a little hut, in the midst of one of the inland lakes of Erin, an old fisherman and his son.
"Turn round, Connla, till I look at you." Connla turned round, and the little mother said: "Oh, Connla, with your golden helmet and your spear, and your glancing shield, and your silken cloak, you look like a king. But take them off, my boy, beautiful as they are. Your little mother would like to see you, her own brave boy, without any fairy finery."
And then the children knew that what they thought was a plain in the realms of cloudland was the sleeping sea unstirred by wind or tide, dreaming of the purple clouds and stars of the sunset sky above it. When Connla and Nora reached the strand they saw the nine little pipers marching out towards the sea, and they wondered where they were going to.
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