nd and Nora on her left.

Then she ordered the nine little pipers to come before her, and she said
to them:

"So far you have done your duty faithfully, and now play one more sweet
air and your task is done."

And the little pipers played, and from the couches at the first sound of
the music all the fairies rose, and forming partners, they danced over
the crystal floor as lightly as the young leaves dancing in the wind.

Listening to the fairy music, and watching the wavy motion of the
dancing fairies, the children fell asleep. When they awoke next morning
and rose from their silken beds they were no longer children. Nora was a
graceful and stately maiden, and Connla a handsome and gallant youth.
They looked at each other for a moment in surprise, and then Connla
said:

"Oh, Nora, how tall and beautiful you are!"

"Oh, not so tall and handsome as you are, Connla," said Nora, as she
flung her white arms round his neck and kissed her brother's lips.

Then they drew back to get a better look of each other, and who should
step between them but the fairy queen.

"Oh, Nora, Nora," said she, "I am not as high as your knee, and as for
you, Connla, you look as straight and as tall as one of the round towers
of Erin."

"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. She knew where you were; but she
is expecting you to-day, and so you must go off to see her, although
I would like to keep you--if I had my way--all to myself here in the
fairyland under the sea. And you will see her to-day; but before you go
here is a necklace for you, Nora; it is formed out of the drops of the
ocean spray, sparkling in the sunshine. They were caught by my fairy
nymphs, for you, as they skimmed the sunlit billows under the shape of
sea-birds, and no queen or princess in the world can match their luster
with the diamonds won with toil from the caves of earth. As for you,
Connla, see here's a helmet of shining gold fit for a king of Erin--and
a king of Erin you will be yet; and here's a spear that will pierce any
shield, and here's a shield that no spear can pierce and no sword can
cleave as long as you fasten your warrior cloak with this brooch of
gold."

And as she spoke she