WORLD'S END."

Ralph sprang to his feet as he said the word, and cried out eagerly:
"Old friend, and where then wert thou bred and born?" Richard laughed
and said: "See, then, there is yet a deed and a day betwixt thee and
death! But turn about and look straight over the meadows in a line
with yonder willow-tree, and tell me what thou seest." Said Ralph:
"The fair plain spreading wide, and a river running through it, and
little hills beyond the water, and blue mountains beyond them, and snow
yet lying on the tops of them, though the year is in young July."
"Yea," quoth Richard; "and seest thou on the first of the little hills
beyond the river, a great grey tower rising up and houses anigh it?"
"Yea," said Ralph, "the tower I see, and the houses, for I am
far-sighted; but the houses are small." "So it is," said Richard; "now
yonder tower is of the Church of Swevenham, which is under the
invocation of the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus; and the houses are the
houses of the little town. And what has that to do with me? sayest
thou: why this, that I was born and bred at Swevenham. And indeed I
it was who brought my lord Blaise here to Whitwall, with tales of how
good a place it was for chaffer, that I might see the little town and
the great grey tower once more. Forsooth I lied not, for thy brother
is happy here, whereas he is piling up the coins one upon the other.
Forsooth thou shouldest go into his booth, fair lord; it is a goodly
sight."

But Ralph was walking to and fro hastily, and he turned to Richard and
said: "Well, well! but why dost thou not tell me more of the Well at
the World's End?"

Said Richard: "I was going to tell thee somewhat which might be worth
thy noting; or might not be worth it: hearken! When I dwelt at
Swevenham over yonder, and was but of eighteen winters, who am now of
three score and eight, three folk of our township, two young men and
one young woman, set out thence to seek the said Well: and much lore
they had concerning it, which they had learned of an old man, a nigh
kinsman of one of them. This ancient carle I had never seen, for he
dwelt in the mountains a way off, and these men were some five years
older than I, so that I was a boy when they were men grown; and such
things I heeded not, but rather sport and play; and above all, I longed
for the play of war and battle. God wot I have had my bellyful of it
since those days! Howbeit I mind me the setting forth of these three.