ing that his voice might be heard. The maidens
started, like frightened deer, at the sound; and then, seeing the
faithful Terence as he looked over the rock, they swam towards him,
putting out their arms, and endeavouring to grasp his hands. A more
prudent person would have withdrawn, and suspected treachery; but such
an idea never occurred to the mind of the warm-hearted Irishman.

"A pleasant morning to ye, my pretty damsels!" quoth he, offering his
hand to the first who came up, expecting to assist her to land; for, as
they were dressed in sea-green garments, and had wreaths of red and
white coral on their heads, he thought that they would have no objection
to come out of the water. Instead, however, of coming out themselves,
the first held him tight, and others arriving caught hold of him
likewise, and began to pull and pull away till the faithful Terence
discovered, without a doubt, that it was their purpose to pull him in.

"But I can't swim, Ladies!" he exclaimed. "I shall spoil my armour and
wet my clothes--let me go, if you please, now." He wished to speak them
fair, though doubts as to what they were began to rise up in his mind.
"Och, now, let me go, I say! A joke's a joke all the world over; but if
you souse me head over ears in that pool, and drown me entirely, it will
be a very bad one to my taste now." The more, however, he shouted and
struggled the harder the damsels pulled.

Though Terence was a stout fellow, and had been in many a hot fight in
foreign lands, and not a few scrimmages in Old Ireland, he never had had
such a struggle in his life. At last his cries brought Saint Patrick to
his aid, (for who would the Champion of Ireland have helped more
willingly than Terence O'Grady?) and seizing the other arm, he hauled
away lustily against the twelve sea-nymphs, whom he at once discovered
to be mermaids, who had set their hearts on carrying off his faithful
Squire to their coral homes beneath the waves.

Between the mermaids on one side, and his master on the other, hauling
away with all their might, poor Terence was very nearly torn in pieces.
Still he struggled and strove, entreating his master not to let him go.

Shouts of merry laughter issued from the throats of the mermaids; but
though they diverted themselves with the terror of the faithful Terence,
they did not cease to pull at him the less hard, till he began to fear
that, if they could not have the whole, they would have a bit of hi