Matheson Collection > Folk tales and fairy lore in Gaelic and English

FOLK TALES AND FAIRY LORE. 83
next day dawned. At last he thought he would see
what stuff was in the bottle. He took a toothful from
it, and felt that that had lightened his mind. About
midnight sleep overpowered him and he did not
awake till day was breaking. There was then a
nice breeze of wind driving the raft before it. John
passed three nights and three days on the raft. But on
the evening of the third day he beheld land ahead of
him, and in the darkening of the night the raft struck
the shore in a bay, from margin of wave to border of
wood, the very prettiest he had ever seen.
John the Sailor sprang ashore, glad that he had once
more got the breadth of his soles of land under him.
He took the bags with him to the top of the beach,
where he hid them in the sand. He then drew the
raft up to the border of the wood, for he said to him-
self: " There is no saying but that it may yet be useful
to another man."
He then struck into the wood to see if he could fall
in with a house where he might stay. But, though
he travelled the night long, he saw neither house nor
hald. About daybreak he gave a glance ahead of him,
and saw a short distance off smoke ascending from the
foot of a high precipice. He made straight for it, and
what was there but a big black clumsy building like an
old mill. He was ready to drop with fatigue and
sleep, and so he walked in without leave asked or
obtained.
A handsome woman sat at the fireside before him ;
and when she noticed him, she was much alarmed,
for she was not accustomed to see travellers coming the
way. In a short time, however, she gathered courage