im by death. Then Bodb saw an opportunity for reconciliation
with the chief whose enemy he had no wish to be. And to the
grief-stricken husband he sent a message:

"My heart weeps for thee, yet I pray thee to be comforted. In my house
have I three maidens, my foster-daughters, the most beautiful and the
best instructed in all Erin. Choose which one thou wilt for thy wife,
and own me for thy lord, and my friendship shall be thine forever."

And the message brought comfort to Lir, and he set out with a gallant
company of fifty chariots, nor ever halted until he had reached the
palace of Bodb the Red at Lough Derg, on the Shannon. Warm and kindly
was the welcome that Lir received from his overlord, and next day, as
the three beautiful foster-daughters of Bodb sat on the same couch as
his queen, Bodb said to Lir:

"Behold my three daughters. Choose which one thou wilt."

And Lir answered, "They are all beautiful, but Eve is the eldest, so
she must be the noblest of the three. I would have her for my wife."

That day he married Eve, and Lir took his fair young wife back with
him to his own place, Shee Finnaha, and happy were both of them in
their love. To them in course of time were born a twin son and a
daughter. The daughter they named Finola and the son Aed, and the
children were as beautiful, as good, and as happy as their mother.
Again she bore twins, boys, whom they named Ficra and Conn, but as
their eyes opened on the world, the eyes of their mother closed on
pleasant life forever, and once again Lir was a widower, more bowed
down by grief than before.

The tidings of the death of Eve brought great sorrow to the palace of
Bodb the Red, for to all who knew her Eve was very dear. But again the
king sent a message of comfort to Lir:

"We sorrow with thee, yet in proof of our friendship with thee and our
love for the one who is gone, we would give thee another of our
daughters to be a mother to the children who have lost their mother's
care."

And again Lir went to the palace at Loch Derg, the Great Lake, and
there he married Eva, the second of the foster-daughters of the king.

At first it seemed as if Eva loved her dead sister's children as
though they were her own. But when she saw how passionate was her
husband's devotion to them, how he would have them to sleep near him
and would rise at their slightest whimper to comfort and to caress
them, and how at dawn she would wake to find he had left her side to
se