g dark iron knife, almost a short sword, from his
belt, and after breathing on it, handed it hilt-first to Puck, who took
it with his head on one side, as you should when you look at the works
of a watch, squinted down the dark blade, and very delicately rubbed his
forefinger from the point to the hilt.

'Good!' said he, in a surprised tone.

'It should be. The Children of the Night made it,' the man answered.

'So I see by the iron. What might it have cost you?'

'This!' The man raised his hand to his cheek. Puck whistled like a Weald
starling.

'By the Great Rings of the Chalk!' he cried. 'Was that your price? Turn
sunward that I may see better, and shut your eye.' He slipped his hand
beneath the man's chin and swung him till he faced the children up the
slope. They saw that his right eye was gone, and the eyelid lay shrunk.
Quickly Puck turned him round again, and the two sat down.

'It was for the sheep. The sheep are the people,' said the man, in an
ashamed voice. 'What else could I have done? You know, Old One.'

Puck sighed a little fluttering sigh. 'Take the knife. I listen.' The
man bowed his head, drove the knife into the turf, and while it still
quivered said: 'This is witness between us that I speak the thing that
has been. Before my Knife and the Naked Chalk I speak. Touch!'

Puck laid a hand on the hilt. It stopped shaking. The children wriggled
a little nearer.

'I am of the People of the Worked Flint. I am the one son of the
Priestess who sells the Winds to the Men of the Sea. I am the Buyer
of the Knife--the Keeper of the People,' the man began, in a sort of
singing shout. 'These are my names in this country of the Naked Chalk,
between the Trees and the Sea.'

'Yours was a great country. Your names are great too,' said Puck.

'One cannot feed some things on names and songs.' The man hit himself
on the chest. 'It is better--always better--to count one's children safe
round the fire, their Mother among them.'

'Ahai!' said Puck. 'I think this will be a very old tale.' 'I warm
myself and eat at any fire that I choose, but there is no one to light
me a fire or cook my meat. I sold all that when I bought the Magic Knife
for my people. It was not right that The Beast should master man. What
else could I have done?'

'I hear. I know. I listen,' said Puck.

'When I was old enough to take my place in the Sheepguard, The Beast
gnawed all our country like a bone between his teeth. He came in behind