"how
splendid is my father!" The pearl rejoices in the power of the oyster to
shut it away from the world.

Now (continued Eamonn), on the hilly slopes of the country called
Sunnach there was a shepherd boy, and people who saw that he was a rare
boy in looks and intelligence were filled with pity for his unhappy lot.
The bodach for whom he herded was a dour, ill-conditioned fellow, full
of curses and violent threats, but the boy was content in the life of
the hillsides, and troubled very little about the bodach's dour looks.
"Some day," he would say to himself laughingly, "I will compose terrible
verses about his black mouth." One day the shepherd boy drove a little
flock of the bodach's lively sheep to the fair in the town of the Seven
Sisters. As he passed the mansion of the Keeper of the Key he cried out,
"How up! how up! how up!" His voice was clear and full, the notes as
round and sweet as the voice of the cuckoo. The daughter of the Keeper
of the Key was seated by a window painting a little picture when she
heard the "How up!" of the shepherd's voice. "What beautiful calls!" she
exclaimed, and leaned out from the window. At the same moment the
shepherd boy looked up. He was bare-headed and wore his plaids. His head
was a shock of curly straw-coloured hair, his face eager, clear-cut, his
eyes golden-brown and bright as the eyes of a bird. He smiled and the
damsel smiled. "How up! how up! how up!" he sang out joyously to his
flock as he moved down to the fair. The damsel went back to her little
picture and sat there for some time staring at her palette and mixing
the wrong colours.

That evening the Keeper of the Key, as was his custom, escorted his
daughter on his arm, servants before and behind them, through the town
of the Seven Sisters, viewing such sights of the fair as were agreeable
and doing a little shopping. The people, seeing the great man coming,
made way for him on the paths, and bowed and smiled to him as he passed.
He walked with great dignity, and his daughter's beauty made the
bystanders say, "Happy will it be for the lucky man!" Among those they
encountered was the shepherd boy, and he gazed upon the damsel with
rapture in his young eyes. He followed them about the town at a
respectful distance, and back to their mansion. The shepherd boy did not
return to the hilly country called Sunnach that night, nor the next
night, nor for many a long day and night. He remained in the town of the
Seven Siste