Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 53252-h.htm or 53252-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53252/53252-h/53252-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/53252/53252-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/boyapprenticedto00colu Transcriber's note: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). THE BOY APPRENTICED TO AN ENCHANTER * * * * * * [Illustration] THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK · BOSTON · CHICAGO · DALLAS ATLANTA · SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., LIMITED LONDON · BOMBAY · CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO * * * * * * [Illustration] THE BOY APPRENTICED TO AN ENCHANTER by PADRAIC COLUM Illustrated by Dugald Stuart Walker New York_ The Macmillan Company 1920 All rights reserved Copyright, 1920, By the Macmillan Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1920. Norwood Press J. S. Cushing Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. TO ELLA YOUNG IN MEMORY OF THE MANY STORIES SHE HAS TOLD ME TABLE OF CONTENTS PROLOGUE PAGE THE HORSES OF KING MANUS 11 PART ONE THE STORY OF EEAN THE FISHERMAN’S SON 19 PART TWO THE STORY OF BIRD-OF-GOLD WHO WAS THE BRAMBLE GATHERER’S DAUGHTER 71 PART THREE THE TWO ENCHANTERS 131 PROLOGUE THE HORSES OF KING MANUS As for the youth who had tried to steal the white horse that the King owned, he was bound hand and foot and taken into the castle of the King. There he was thrown down beside the trestles of the great table, and the hot wax from the candles that lighted the supper board dripped down upon him. And it was told to him that at the morrow’s sunrise he would be slain with the sword. Then the King called upon one to finish the story that was being told when the neigh of the white horse was heard in the stable. The story could not be finished for him, however, because the one who had been telling it was now outside, guarding the iron door of the stable with a sword in his hand. And King Manus, sitting at the supper board, could not eat nor refresh himself because there was no one at hand to finish the story for him. And that is the way that the story of The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter used to begin. But first I shall have to tell you about King Manus and his three horses.