" In
playing these, the children had aprons full of what seemed to be real
coins, the size of crowns, or five-shilling pieces, each worth a
dollar. These had "head and tail," beside letters on them and the boy
supposed they were real.
But when he showed these to his mother, she saw at once from their
lightness, and because they were so easily bent, that they were only
paper, and not silver.
She asked her boy where he had got them. He told her what a nice time
he had enjoyed. Then she knew that these, his playmates, were fairy
children. Fearing that some evil might come of this, she charged him,
her only son, never to go out again alone, on the mountain. She
mistrusted that no good would come of making such strange children his
companions.
But the lad was so fond of play, that one day, tired of seeing nothing
but byre and garden, while his sisters liked to play girls' games more
than those which boys cared most for, and the hills seeming to beckon
him to come to them, he disobeyed, and slipped out and off to the
mountains. He was soon missed and search was made for him.
Yet nobody had seen or heard of him.
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