see if he could get anything to eat. Not very far
off was a farm-house, so he went there, and knocked at the door, and
the farmer and his wife begged him to come in, and share their
breakfast.

[Illustration: INSTEAD OF A DEER A WOMAN WITH LONG BLACK HAIR WAS
STANDING THERE]

'Ah, you have a gun,' said the farmer as the young man placed it in a
corner. 'That is well, for a deer comes every evening to eat my corn,
and I cannot catch it. It is fortune that has sent you to me.'

'I will gladly remain and shoot the deer for you,' replied the youth,
and that night he hid himself and watched till the deer came to the
cornfield; then he lifted his gun to his shoulder and was just going to
pull the trigger, when, behold! instead of a deer, a woman with long
black hair was standing there. At this sight his gun almost dropped from
his hand in surprise, but as he looked, there was the deer eating the
corn again. And thrice this happened, till the deer ran away over the
moor, and the young man after her.

On they went, on and on and on, till they reached a cottage which was
thatched with heather. With a bound the deer sprang on the roof, and lay
down where none could see her, but as she did so she called out, 'Go in,
fisher's son, and eat and drink while you may.' So he entered and found
food and wine on the table, but no man, for the house belonged to some
robbers, who were still away at their wicked business.

After Ian, the fisher's son, had eaten all he wanted, he hid himself
behind a great cask, and very soon he heard a noise, as of men coming
through the heather, and the small twigs snapping under their feet. From
his dark corner he could see into the room, and he counted four and
twenty of them, all big, cross-looking men.

'Someone has been eating our dinner,' cried they, 'and there was hardly
enough for ourselves.'

'It is the man who is lying under the cask,' answered the leader. 'Go
and kill him, and then come and eat your food and sleep, for we must be
off betimes in the morning.'

So four of them killed the fisher's son and left him, and then went to
bed.

* * * * *

By sunrise they were all out of the house, for they had far to go. And
when they had disappeared the deer came off the roof, to where the dead
man lay, and she shook her head over him, and wax fell from her ear,
and he jumped up as well as ever.

'Trust me and eat as you did before, and no harm shall happen to