ty of
friends."

Then she said: "Art thou verily Hallblithe? For I also have been
encompassed by lies, and beset by images of things unhelpful."

"Yea," said he, "I am Hallblithe of the Ravens, wearied with desire for
my troth-plight maiden."

Then came the rosy colour into the fairness of her face, as the rising
sun lighteth the garden of flowers in the June morning; and she said: "If
thou art Hallblithe, tell me what befell to the finger-gold-ring that my
mother gave me when we were both but little."

Then his face grew happy, and he smiled, and he said: "I put it for thee
one autumntide in the snake's hole in the bank above the river, amidst
the roots of the old thorn-tree, that the snake might brood it, and make
the gold grow greater; but when winter was over and we came to look for
it, lo! there was neither ring nor snake, nor thorn-tree: for the flood
had washed it all away."

Thereat she smiled most sweetly, and whereas she had been looking on him
hitherto with strained and anxious eyes, she now beheld him simply and
friendly; and she said: "O Hallblithe, I am a woman indeed, and thy
speech-friend. This is the flesh that desireth thee, and the life that
is thine, and the heart which thou rejoicest. But now tell me, who are
these huge images around us, amongst whom I have sat thus, once in every
moon this year past, and afterwards I was taken back to the women's
bower? Are they men or mountain-giants? Will they slay us, or shut us
up from the light and air? Or hast thou made peace with them? Wilt thou
then dwell with me here, or shall we go back again to Cleveland by the
Sea? And when, oh when, shall we depart?"

He smiled and said: "Quick come thy questions, beloved. These are the
folks of the Ravagers and the Sea-eagles: they be men, though fierce and
wild they be. Our foes they have been, and have sundered us; but now are
they our friends, and have brought us together. And to-morrow, O friend,
shall we depart across the waters to Cleveland by the Sea."

She leaned forward, and was about to speak softly to him, but suddenly
started back, and said: "There is a big, red-haired man, as big as any
here, behind thy shoulder. Is he also a friend? What would he with us?"

So Hallblithe turned about, and beheld the Puny Fox beside him, who took
up the word and spoke, smiling as a man in great glee: "O maiden of the
Rose, I am Hallblithe's thrall, and his scholar, to unlearn the craft of
lying, wher