Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/61

bird; and thy voice is beauteous, so loud and clear. He laughed, and said: Well then, I will speak. Tell me what thou art. Art thou of the Faery? for thou art too well shapen to be of the Dwarfkin. She clapped her hands together and laughed; then she said: I laughed not as mocking thy question, but for joy to hear thy voice again. Nay, nay, I am no Faery, but of the children of men. But thou, art thou not of the sons of the Land-wights? No more than thou art, said he. I am a goodman's son, but my father is dead, and my mother also, and I live at home at Wethermel up the water, with my grandsire and grandame. Said she: Are they kind to thee? The lad drew himself up: I am kind to them, said he. How goodly thou art, she said; that was why I dreamed thou must be of the Land-wights, because I have seen divers men, some old, some young like to thee, but none half so goodly. He smiled, and said: Well, I thought thou wert of the Faery because thou art goodly and little. I have seen a pretty maid not long since, but she was older than thou, I deem, and far taller. But tell me, how old art thou? She said: When May is half worn I shall be of thirteen winters. Lo now, said he, we be nigh of an age; I was thirteen in early April. But thou hast not told me where thou dwellest, and how. She said: I dwell at Hart Shaw Knolls hard by. I am the daughter of a goodman, as thou art, and my father and mother are dead, so that my father I never saw, and now I dwell with my two aunts, and they be both