deem thou wilt know me, but look to it that thou show no sign
thereof before other men; and as to the bow, thou wilt not be eager
belike to say of whom thou hadst it. Lo now! we have opened up
Wethermel; fare thou well, bold bairn, and forget not my redes."

And therewith he turned about and gat him gone into the waste again,
striding hugely; and the lad was sorry to lack him, for he deemed him
the goodliest and best man that he had ever met.

Chapter VIII. The Goodman Gets a New Hired Man

Now when he came home to Wethermel he found tidings there, for the
goodman had gotten a new hired man, and he showed him to Osberne, who
greeted him well: he was a tall man, mild of aspect and speech,
flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, and seemed a stark carle. He had come to
the stead that morning while the goodman was away, and had craved
guesting of the women, who made him welcome and set him down to meat.
He told them that his name was Stephen, that he had been born in the
country-side, but had gone thence in his early youth to Eastcheaping,
which was the market town whither that folk had resort; and that he
had grown up there and there wedded a wife; but that when she died in
childing with her first bairn, and the bairn had not lived, he loathed
the place, and came back again into the Dale.

So when the goodman came home this Stephen offered himself to him, and
said that he deemed he could do as good a stroke of work as another,
and that he was not for any great wage, but he must not be stinted of
his meat, whereas he was a heavy feeder. The goodman liked the looks
of him, and they struck the bargain betwixt them straightway, and
Stephen had hansel of a second dinner, and ate well thereat; and
henceforth is he called Stephen the Eater.

Now when the goodman saw Osberne bring in his new weapon, he asked him
whence he had it, and the lad told him that he had been far in the
waste, and had found it there. The goodman eyed him, but said nought.
Forsooth, he misdoubted him that the bow was somewhat unked, and that
the lad had had some new dealings with the Dwarf-kin or other strange
wights. But then he bethought him of Osberne's luck, and withal it
came to his mind that now he had gotten this victual-waster, it would
not be ill if his lad should shoot them some venison or fowl now and
again; and by the look of the bow he deemed it like to be a lucky one.
But Stephen reached out for the bow, and handled it and turned it
about, and