So the boy thanked her , and he fastened on the Shoes of Swiftness , and turned to say good-by to the young man and the lady . But , behold ! they had vanished , he knew not how or where ! Then he leaped in the air to try the Shoes of Swiftness , and they carried him more swiftly than the wind , over the warm blue sea , over the happy lands of the south , over the northern peoples who drank mare 's milk and lived in great wagons , wandering after their flocks . Across the wide rivers , where the wild fowl rose and fled before him , and over the plains and the cold North Sea he went , over the fields of snow and the hills of ice , to a place where the world ends , and all water is frozen , and there are no men , nor beasts , nor any green grass . There in a blue cave of the ice he found the Three Gray Sisters , the oldest of living things . Their hair was as white as the snow , and their flesh of an icy blue , and they mumbled and nodded in a kind of dream , and their frozen breath hung round them like a cloud . Now the opening of the cave in the ice was narrow , and it was not easy to pass in without touching one of the Gray Sisters . But , floating on the Shoes of Swiftness , the boy just managed to steal in , and waited till one of the sisters said to another , who had their one eye : `` Sister , what do you see ? do you see old times coming back ? '' `` No , sister . '' `` Then give me the eye , for perhaps I can see farther than you . '' Then the first sister passed the eye to the second , but as the second groped for it the boy caught it cleverly out of her hand . `` Where is the eye , sister ? '' said the second gray woman . `` You have taken it yourself , sister , '' said the first gray woman . `` Have you lost the eye , sister ? have you lost the eye ? '' said the third gray woman ; `` shall we never find it again , and see old times coming back ? '' Then the boy slipped from behind them out of the cold cave into the air , and he laughed aloud .
When the gray women heard that laugh they began to weep , XXXXX now they knew that a stranger had robbed them , and that they could not help themselves , and their tears froze as they fell from the hollows where no eyes were , and rattled on the icy ground of the cave .
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