THE WATER-HEN 
it cast upon the Pool all at once shiver into a 
hundred ripples, and heard a faint splash as she 
alighted. Then he followed at his leisure, for 
he knew that the magic of the Pool would 
keep her until morning. 
Ill 
This is more a tale of Karruck's mate than of 
Karruck himself. She was Cearc-uise, the 
water-hen from the weir-side ; and whether she 
came to Dark Pool by chance, or in answer to 
Karruck's call, is not known, but the chronicler 
suspects the latter. 
Karruck was astir early, and before it was light 
he had proclaimed the Pool, and all that was 
in it, as his own, that she might hear. There- 
fore, when he swam across the open water at 
dawn, she shifted from one perch to another, 
so that by the ring of ripples he might know 
where she was hidden. A wooing which 
might have been long and perplexed on the 
crowded river, was short enough in the loneli- 
ness of the Pool. . . . They swam slowly across 
the open water, side by side, and landed on 
one of the shelving mud ledges which the rats 
had trodden smooth. They stood shoulder to 
shoulder, duplicated in the clear water at their 
feet, and discoursed in that soft language which 
7 
