have I seen a man to equal thee."

"But thou," cried Halfred, seizing both the singer's hands, "art like
Baldur in spring beauty, gentle boy.

"Never have I seen such perfect charm in youth or in maiden. Like
sunshine upon chilled limbs, like Chios wine through parched throat,
flows thy beauty through my eyes deep into my soul. Thou art as the
blackbird's song and the wood flowers: as the evening star in golden
clouds; thou art as the most wonderful song which ever resounded from
the lips of a Skald; thyself, as thou livest and movest, thou art pure
poetry.

"O Thoril, golden boy, how gentle thou art! how thou hast quickened my
grief-worn heart. O Thoril, leave me never again!

"Take up once more thy magic harp; uplift once more that sweet song,
which has awakened my soul from the sleep of death.

"O come, let me lay my heavy head upon thy knee, and gaze in thy sunny
wondrous face, while thou tunest thy harp, and playest and singest."

And thus they both did.

And trustfully flew one of the doves from Thoril's hand to Halfred's
broad shoulder, and cooed lovingly to the other.

And when the song was ended, Halfred seized again the two hands of the
boy, and drew them slowly slowly over his forehead, and his moist eyes.

And it all was as it stands written in the sacred books of the Jews, of
the King full of sadness and heaviness, who could only be healed by the
harp-playing of the son of Jesse.

CHAPTER XII.

And this lasted many days; and upon Halfred's forehead the lines and
furrows disappeared, one after another. And once more he could draw a
deep full breath without sighing.

And he carried his head again proudly erect, when he did not purposely
bend down to look into the golden eyes of the boy, which ever again and
again he did.

And so much did Halfred dread to lose Thoril again, that he never left
his side the live-long day. And because Thoril's couch and sleeping
chamber were, as he said, so small that Halfred could not share them,
he lay before the door upon the threshold.

Nevertheless he still could not sleep; but now, because with ardent
yearning he listened to the breathing of the sleeper. And with the
earliest dawn of morning he would rouse Thoril from sleep and his
sleeping chamber.

And it seemed as if the old gift of Oski was given back to Halfred,
the winning of all hearts. For the two guardians of the boy, who
full of mistrust had seen the strange m