lope but little grassed; and when they
had ridden up to the brow and could see below, Christopher stretched
out his hand, and said: "Lo thou the Long Pools, fellow wayfarer! and lo
some of the tramping; horses that woke thee and not me last night."

Forsooth there lay below them a great stretch of grass, which whiles
ran into mere quagmire, and whiles was sound and better grassed; and
the said plain was seamed by three long shallow pools, with, as it were,
grassy causeways between them, grown over here and there with ancient
alder trees; but the stony slope whereon they had reined up bent round
the plain mostly to the east, as though it were the shore of a great
water; and far away to the south the hills of the forest rose up blue,
and not so low at the most, but that they were somewhat higher than
the crest of the White Horse as ye may see it from the little Berkshire
hills above the Thames. Down on the firm greensward there was indeed a
herd of wild horses feeding; mallard and coot swam about the waters; the
whimbrel laughed from the bent-sides, and three herons stood on the side
of the causeway seeking a good fishing-stead.

Simon sat a-horseback looking askance from the marish to Christopher,
and said nothing a while; then he spake in a low croaking voice, and
said: "So, little King, we have come to the Long Pools; now I will ask
thee, hast thou been further southward than this marish land?"

"That have I," said the lad, "a day's journey further; but according to
the tales of men it was at the peril of my life."

Simon seemed as if he had not noted his last word; he said: "Well then,
since thou knowest the wild and the wood, knowest thou amidst of the
thickets there, two lumps of bare hills, like bowls turned bottom up,
that rise above the trees, and on each a tower, and betwixt them a long
house."

"Save us, Allhallows!" quoth Christopher, "but thou wilt mean the Tofts!
Is it so, sir squire?"

"Even so," said Simon.

"And thou knowest what dwellest there, and wouldst have me lead thee
thither?" said the lad.

"I am so bidden," said Simon; "if thou wilt not do my bidding, seek thou
some place to hide thee in from the hand of the Earl Marshal."

Said the youngling: "Knowest thou not Jack of the Tofts and his seven
sons, and what he is, and that he dwelleth there?"

Said Simon: "I know of him; yea, and himself I know, and that he
dwelleth there; and I wot that men call him an outlaw, and that many
rich men