all over
the two marionettes, covering them where they lay, just as the babes
in the wood when they died were covered over with leaves.

Killian dropped his head on to the boards of the little stage, and
sobbed. The partner let down the curtain, and began gathering up the
gold.

And still, from without, the queen and her court clapped, and cried
their applause; and still within lay Killian with his head upon the
stage, sobbing for the two little marionettes, lying still with all
the springs and strings of their bodies quite broken. Inside, though
he could not see them, their hearts were broken also. 'Now,' he
thought, 'I must go back to Grendel, or I too shall die!'

That night, in the middle of the night, the partner went away,
carrying with him all the gold that the little marionettes had earned
by their deaths. And these, indeed, he left, seeing that they were
useless any more. But to Killian, when he woke the next morning, they
were the only things left him in the world, to take back to Grendel.

He took them just as they were, locked in each other's arms, and went
back all the long way to Grendel, up into the hills of his home, as
poor in money as when he first started.

But Grendel saw that he had come back rich; for his face was grown
tender and wise. And for five years they waited very patiently
together, till by cow-keeping he had earned enough for them to keep
some cows of their own, and to live in married happiness.

The little marionettes they put on a shelf, beneath the cross, and the
statue of our Lady; and there, locked in each other's arms, those two
disciples and martyrs of love lie at peace, feeling no pain any more
in their broken hearts.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Field of Clover, by Laurence Housman

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