The Wizard's Palace

Long hundreds of years ago there was a fine palace on a mountain
sloping up from the sea. It was like a palace in a dream, built of
shining marble of all colours and having great doors covered with gold.

In it there lived the mighty Wizard who had made it for himself by his
spells. But his hatred of other people was as great as his power, and
he would not allow any person to come near him except his own servants,
and they were evil spirits. If any man dared to go to see the palace,
to ask for work or to beg for charity, he would never be heard of
again. His friends might search for him, but they would never find
him. Soon people began to whisper that some of the blocks of granite
near the palace were like the men who had gone up the mountain and
never came back. They began to believe that the Wizard had caught
them and frozen them into grey stone. At length the Wizard became
the terror of the whole island, so that no person would pass within
several miles of his palace. The people of that side of the island
fled from their homes, and the place was lonely and desolate.

So things went on for three years, until one day a poor man going
on the houses happened to travel on that side of the island, not
knowing anything of this Wizard. His road took him over the mountain,
where the Wizard lived, and as he came near it, he was astonished to
see the place so silent and desolate. He had been looking forward to
the usual food and shelter, with the friendly welcome, but he found
the houses empty ruins and the kindly country people gone. And where
was the straw and hay which made such a snug bed in the barn? Weeds
and stones were lying thick in the fields. Night came on him, and he
walked and walked; but never a bit of shelter could he find, and he
did not know where to go to get a bed. 'It's a middlin' dark night,'
he thought; 'but it's better to go on than back--a road a body is used
on is no throuble to them, let it be night or not.' He was travelling
on the old road over the mountain, going ahead singing 'Colcheragh
Raby' for company to himself, and after a long while he saw a light
in the distance. The light got brighter and brighter until he came to
a grand palace with every window lit up. The singing was all knocked
out of him.

'In the name of Fortune where am I at all? This is a dreadful big
house,' he said to himself; 'where did it come from, for all? Nobody
never seen the like of it on this bare breas' before--else where am
I at all, at all?'

He was hard set to get to the door with the blocks of stone lying
about like frozen men.

'I'd swear,' he said to himself as he stumbled over one, 'that this
was lil' Neddy Hom, the dwarf man tha's missin', only it's stone.'

When he came to the big door it was locked. Through one of the windows
he saw a table, and supper ready on it, but he saw no person. He was
very tired and hungry, but he was afraid to knock at the door of such
a fine place.

'Aw, that place is too gran' for the likes of me!' said he.

He sat down on one of the marble seats outside, saying:

'I'll stretch meself here till mornin', it's a middlin' sort of
a night.'

That day meat and bread had been given to him at the last town he
had passed through. He was hungry and he thought he would eat, so he
opened his wallet and took out a piece of bread and meat, then he put
his hand into his pocket and drew out a pinch of salt in a screw of
paper. As he opened the paper some grains of salt fell out, on to the
ground. No sooner had this happened than up from the ground beneath
came the sound of most terrible groans, high winds blew from every
airt out of the heavens, lightnings flashed in the air, dreadful
thunder crashed overhead, and the ground heaved beneath his feet;
and he knew that there was plenty of company round him, though no man
was to be seen. In less than a moment the grand palace burst into a
hundred thousand bits, and vanished into the air. He found himself
on a wide, lonely mountain, and in the grey light of dawn no trace
of the palace was to be seen.

He went down on his knees and put up a prayer of thanksgiving for his
escape, and then ran on to the next village, where he told the people
all that he had seen, and glad they were to hear of the disappearance
of the Wizard.