en himself, and that if he did not come by a certain day she should
die. And now the time has past and there is no sign of him.'

'In truth he is a good knight, and had he but known that the maid was in
peril he would have come to save her,' said Owen; 'but accept me in his
stead, I entreat you.'

'We will,' replied they, and the fight began.

The youths fought well and pressed hard on Owen, and when the lion saw
that he came to help his master. But the youths made a sign for the
fight to stop, and said:

'Chieftain, it was agreed we should give battle to thee alone, and it is
harder for us to contend with yonder beast than with thee.'

Then Owen shut up the lion in the cave where the maiden had been in
prison, and blocked up the front with stones. But the fight with the
giant had sorely tried him, and the youths fought well, and pressed him
harder than before. And when the lion saw that he gave a loud roar, and
burst through the stones, and sprang upon the youths and slew them. And
so Luned was delivered at the last.

Then the maiden rode back with Owen to the lands of the lady of the
fountain. And he took the lady with him to Arthur's court, where they
lived happily till they died.

From the 'Mabinogion.'

_THE FOUR GIFTS_

IN the old land of Brittany, once called Cornwall, there lived a woman
named Barbaik Bourhis, who spent all her days in looking after her farm
with the help of her niece Tephany. Early and late the two might be seen
in the fields or in the dairy, milking cows, making butter, feeding
fowls; working hard themselves and taking care that others worked too.
Perhaps it might have been better for Barbaik if she had left herself a
little time to rest and to think about other things, for soon she grew
to love money for its own sake, and only gave herself and Tephany the
food and clothes they absolutely needed. And as for poor people, she
positively hated them, and declared that such lazy creatures had no
business in the world.

Well, this being the sort of person Barbaik was, it is easy to guess at
her anger when one day she found Tephany talking outside the cow-house
to young Denis, who was nothing more than a day labourer from the
village of Plover. Seizing her niece by the arm, she pulled her sharply
away, exclaiming:

'Are you not ashamed, girl, to waste your time over a man who is as poor
as a rat, when there are a dozen more who would be only too happy to buy
you rings of s