though he was not as big as I am."

Said the last speaker: "Did thy kin or didst thou steal him, O evil man?"

"Yea, I stole him," quoth Fox, "but by sleight, and not by might."

Then uprose great uproar in the hall, but the chieftain on the high-seat
cried out: "Peace, peace!" and the noise abated, and the chieftain said:
"Dost thou mean that thou comest hither to give us thine head for making
away with Hallblithe and the Hostage?"

"I mean to ask rather," said the Fox, "what thou wilt give me for the
bodies of these twain?"

Said the chieftain: "A boat-load of gold were not too much if thou
shouldst live a little longer."

Quoth the Puny Fox: "Well, in anywise I will go and bring in the bodies
aforesaid, and leave my reward to the goodwill of the Ravens."

Therewith he turned about to go, but lo! there already in the door stood
Hallblithe holding the Hostage by the hand; and many in the hall saw
them, for the door was wide. Then they came in and stood by the side of
the Puny Fox, and all men in the hall arose and shouted for joy. But
when the tumult was a little abated, the Puny Fox cried out: "O
chieftain, and all ye folk! if a boat-load of gold were not too much
reward for the bringing back the dead bodies of your friends, what reward
shall he have who hath brought back their bodies and the souls therein?"

Said the chieftain: "The man shall choose his own reward." And the men
in the hall shouted their yeasay.

Then said the Puny Fox: "Well, then, this I choose, that ye make me one
of your kindred before the fathers of old time."

They all cried out that he had chosen wisely and manfully; but Hallblithe
said: "I bid you do for him no less than this; and ye shall wot that he
is already my sworn brother-in-arms."

Now the chieftain cried out: "O Wanderers from over the sea, come up
hither and sit with us and be merry at last!"

So they went up to the dais, Hallblithe and the Hostage, and the Puny Fox
and the six maidens withal. And since the night was yet young, the
supper of the men of the Ravens was turned into the wedding-feast of
Hallblithe and the Hostage, and that very night she became a wife of the
Ravens, that she might bear to the House the best of men and the fairest
of women.

But on the morrow they brought the Puny Fox to the mote-stead of the
kindreds that he might stand before the fathers and be made a son of the
kindred; and this they did because of the word of Hallblithe, and because