o the brine of the
sea, or up into the clefts of the mountains which are the wall of this
goodly land.

"Thou hast been my shipmate and I love thee, I am thy friend; but here in
this land must needs be the love and the friendship. For no ghost can
love thee, no ghost may help thee. And as to what thou sayest concerning
the days gone past and our joys upon the tumbling sea, true it is that
those days were good and lovely; but they are dead and gone like the lads
who sat on the thwart beside us, and the maidens who took our hands in
the hall to lead us to the chamber. Other days have come in their stead,
and other friends shall cherish us. What then? Shall we wound the
living to pleasure the dead, who cannot heed it? Shall we curse the
Yuletide, and cast foul water on the Holy Hearth of the winter feast,
because the summer once was fair and the days flit and the times change?
Now let us be glad! For life liveth."

Therewith he turned about to his damsel and kissed her on the mouth. But
Hallblithe's face was grown sad and stern, and he spake slowly and
heavily: "So is it, shipmate, that whereas thou sayest that the days
flit, for thee they shall flit no more; and the day may come for thee
when thou shalt be weary, and know it, and long for the lost which thou
hast forgotten. But hereof it availeth nought for me to speak any
longer, for thine ears are deaf to these words, and thou wilt not hear
them. Therefore I say no more save that I thank thee for thy help
whatsoever it may be; and I will take it, for the day's work lieth before
me, and I begin to think that it may be heavy enough."

The women yet looked downcast, and as if they would be gone out of
earshot; but the Sea-eagle laughed as one who is well content, and said:
"Thou thyself wilt make it hard for thyself after the wont of thy proud
and haughty race; but for me nothing is hard any longer; neither thy
scorn nor thy forebodings of evil. Be thou my friend as much as thou
canst, and I will be thine wholly. Now ye women, whither will ye lead
us? For I am ready to see any new thing ye will show us."

Said his damsel: "We will take you to the King, that your hearts may be
the more gladdened. And as for thy friend the Spearman, O Sea-warrior,
let not his heart be downcast. Who wotteth but that these two desires,
the desire of his heart, and the desire of a heart for him, may not be
one and the same desire, so that he shall be fully satisfied?" As she