erself and gave the other to the Sea-eagle, and said: "We
will be thy porters, O Spearman, and will give thee a full wallet from
the last house by the Desert of Dread, for when thou hast entered
therein, thou mayst well find victual hard to come by: and now let us
linger no more since the road is dear to thee."

So they set forth on foot, for in that land men were slow to feel
weariness; and turning about the hill of Wood-end, they passed by some
broken country, and came at even to a house at the entrance of a long
valley, with high and steeply-sloping sides, which seemed, as it were, to
cleave the dale country wherein they had fared aforetime. At that house
they slept well-guested by its folk, and the next morning took their way
down the valley, and the folk of the house stood at the door to watch
their departure; for they had told the wayfarers that they had fared but
a little way thitherward and knew of no folk who had used that road.

So those three fared down the valley southward all day, ever mounting
higher as they went. The way was pleasant and easy, for they went over
fair, smooth, grassy lawns betwixt the hill-sides, beside a clear
rattling stream that ran northward; at whiles were clumps of tall trees,
oak for the most part, and at whiles thickets of thorn and eglantine and
other such trees: so that they could rest well shaded when they would.

They passed by no house of men, nor came to any such in the even, but lay
down to sleep in a thicket of thorn and eglantine, and rested well, and
on the morrow they rose up betimes and went on their ways.

This second day as they went, the hill-sides on either hand grew lower,
till at last they died out into a wide plain, beyond which in the
southern offing the mountains rose huge and bare. This plain also was
grassy and beset with trees and thickets here and there. Hereon they saw
wild deer enough, as hart and buck, and roebuck and swine: withal a lion
came out of a brake hard by them as they went, and stood gazing on them,
so that Hallblithe looked to his weapons, and the Sea-eagle took up a big
stone to fight with, being weaponless; but the damsel laughed, and
tripped on her way lightly with girt-up gown, and the beast gave no more
heed to them.

Easy and smooth was their way over this pleasant wilderness, and clear to
see, though but little used, and before nightfall, after they had gone a
long way, they came to a house. It was not large nor high, but was b