At that the
nurse lifted up her finger in the vaulted house.
"I hear a sound in the wind," said she, "that is like the sound of
piping."
"It is but a little sound," said the King's daughter, "but yet is
it sound enough for me."
So they went down in the dusk to the doors of the house, and along
the beach of the sea. And the waves beat upon the one hand, and
upon the other the dead leaves ran; and the clouds raced in the
sky, and the gulls flew widdershins. And when they came to that
part of the beach where strange things had been done in the ancient
ages, lo, there was the crone, and she was dancing widdershins.
"What makes you dance widdershins, old crone?" said the King's
daughter; "here upon the bleak beach, between the waves and the
dead leaves?"
"I hear a sound in the wind that is like a sound of piping," quoth
she. "And it is for that that I dance widdershins. For the gift
comes that will make you bare, and the man comes that must bring
you care. But for me the morrow is come that I have thought upon,
and the hour of my power."
"How comes it, crone," said the King's daughter, "that you waver
like a rag, and pale like a dead leaf before my eyes?"
"Because the morrow has come that I have thought upon, and the hour
of my power," said the crone; and she fell on the beach, and, lo!
she was but stalks of the sea tangle, and dust of the sea sand, and
the sand lice hopped upon the place of her.
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