aspect.

So when they saw him stirring, they all fixed their eyes upon him, and
the oldest man said: "Welcome to him who erst had no tidings for us!" And
the second said: "Tell us now thy tidings." But the third, the sorry
man, cried out aloud, saying: "Where is the Land? Where is the Land?"

Said Hallblithe: "Meseemeth the land which ye seek is the land which I
seek to flee from. And now I will not hide that meseemeth I have seen
you before, and that was at Cleveland by the Sea when the days were
happier."

Then they all three bowed their heads in yea-say, and spake: "'Where is
the Land? Where is the Land?"

Then Hallblithe arose to his feet, and said: "Ye have healed me of the
sickness of death, and I will do what I may to heal you of your sickness
of sorrow. Come up the pass with me, and I will show you the land afar
off."

Then they arose like young and brisk men, and he led them over the brow
of the ridge into the little valley wherein he had first come to himself:
there he showed them that glimpse of a green land betwixt the two peaks,
which he had beheld e'en now; and they stood a while looking at it and
weeping for joy.

Then spake the oldest of the seekers: "Show us the way to the land."

"Nay," said Hallblithe, "I may not; for when I would depart thence, I
might not go by mine own will, but was borne out hither, I wot not how.
For when I came to the edge of the land against the will of the King, he
smote me, and then cast me out. Therefore since I may not help you, find
ye the land for yourselves, and let me go blessing you, and come out of
this desert by the way whereby ye entered it. For I have an errand in
the world."

Spake the youngest of the seekers: "Now art thou become the yoke-fellow
of Sorrow, and thou must wend, not whither thou wouldst, but whither she
will: and she would have thee go forward toward life, not backward toward
death."

Said the midmost seeker: "If we let thee go further into the wilderness
thou shalt surely die: for hence to the peopled parts, and the City of
Merchants, whence we come, is a month's journey: and there is neither
meat nor drink, nor beast nor bird, nor any green thing all that way; and
since we have found thee famishing, we may well deem that thou hast no
victual. As to us we have but little; so that if it be much more than
three days' journey to the Glittering Plain, we may well starve and die
within sight of the Acre of the Undying. Nevertheless