Page:Celtic Stories by Edward Thomas.djvu/16

 fantastical as the flying of a pewit in March. At last he made the horses gallop as straight as an arrow up to a stone wall, and then, having stopped them dead, lashed them over the wall itself.

'That will do very well, O Conachoor!' he said, 'this is a chariot in all ways suitable to me.'

The charioteer stepped down and said:

'That may be true, Cohoolin, but I doubt if thou art suitable to the chariot or to the horses. Come, let the horses go now into the meadows.'

'It is early yet, good Jubar. Let us away and drive round the plain of Emania.'

'Another time, perhaps; but the horses ought now to be grazing.'

'It is too early. I must go, and on my way I will see my companions.'

So Cohoolin drove to the green where the boys were playing.

'Do not go away from us, Cohoolin!' said the youngest.

'Give me a ride!' said one.

'Whose chariot is this?' asked another.

'Where are you going?' asked several.

'Thou hast taken arms to-day, Cohoolin,' said the oldest, 'O that it had been any other day!'

'But it is my day,' said Cohoolin, 'I chose it and it was chosen for me. Farewell.'

The boy band wished him triumph and safety, and though Jubar again asked him to let the horses be unharnessed he drove away.

They came at length into a broad track that could be seen running with a bold curve far away, and Cohoolin asked whither it went. 'To the Look-out Ford,' answered Jubar. At that ford every day and night stood one of the chiefs of Ulster, keeping watch and