here's seasons, and the season
they came out of was summer, and the season you'll go back to 'tis
autumn--so you _must_ live the seven months in their time, and then
it'll be summer and you'll meet them."

"And what about Lord Arden in the Tower? Will he be beheaded for
treason?" Dickie asked.

"Oh, _that's_ part of their magic. It isn't in your magic at all. Lord
Arden will be safe enough. And now, my lamb, I've more to tell thee. But
come into thy panelled chamber where thy tutor cannot eavesdrop and
betray us, and have thee given over to him wholly, and me burned for a
witch."

These terrible words kept Dickie silent till he and the nurse were safe
in his room, and then he said, "Come with me to my time, nurse--they
don't burn people for witches there."

"No," said the nurse, "but they let them live such lives in their ugly
towns that my life here with all its risks is far better worth living.
Thou knowest how folk live in Deptford in thy time--how all the green
trees are gone, and good work is gone, and people do bad work for just
so much as will keep together their worn bodies and desolate souls. And
sometimes they starve to death. And they won't burn me if thou'lt only
keep a still tongue. Now listen." She sat down on the edge of the bed,
and Dickie cuddled up against her stiff bodice.

"Edred and Elfrida first went into the past to look for treasure. It is
a treasure buried in Arden Castle by the sea, which is their home. They
want the treasure to restore the splendor of the old Castle, which in
your time is fallen into ruin and decay, and to mend the houses of the
tenants, and to do good to the poor and needy. But you know that now
they have used their magic to get back their father, and can no longer
use it to look for treasure. But your magic will hold. And if you lay
out your moon-seeds round _them_, in the old shape, and stand with them
in the midst, holding your Tinkler and your white seal, you will all go
whithersoever you choose."

"I shall choose to go straight to the treasure, of course," said
practical Dickie, swinging his feet in their rosetted shoes.

"That thou canst not. Thou canst only choose some year in the past--any
year--go into it and then seek for the treasure there and then."

"I'll do it," Dickie said, "and then I may come back to you, mayn't I?"

"If thou'rt not needed elsewhere. The Ardens stay where duty binds them,
and go where duty calls."

"But I'm not an Arden _there_,"