well for you that I met you, for my whole joy is to
find strangers, and to feast them at my castle, and hear tales from them
of foreign lands. Come up with me, and eat the best of venison, and
drink the rich red wine, and sleep upon my famous bed, of which all
travellers say that they never saw the like. For whatsoever the
stature of my guest, however tall or short, that bed fits him to a hair,
and he sleeps on it as he never slept before." And he laid hold on
Theseus' hands, and would not let him go.

[Illustration: NIAGARA FALLS]

Theseus wished to go forwards: but he was ashamed to seem churlish to so
hospitable a man; and he was curious to see that wondrous bed; and
beside, he was hungry and weary: yet he shrank from the man, he knew not
why; for, though his voice was gentle, it was dry and husky like a
toad's; and though his eyes were gentle, they were dull and cold like
stones. But he consented, and went with the man up a glen which led from
the road, under the dark shadow of the cliffs.

And as they went up, the glen grew narrower, and the cliffs higher and
darker, and beneath them a torrent roared, half seen between bare
limestone crags. And around them was neither tree nor bush, while the
snow-blasts swept down the glen, cutting and chilling, till a horror
fell on Theseus as he looked round at that doleful place. And he said at
last: "Your castle stands, it seems, in a dreary region."

"Yes; but once within it, hospitality makes all things cheerful. But who
are these?" and he looked back, and Theseus also; and far below, along
the road which they had left, came a string of laden asses, and
merchants walking by them, watching their ware.

"Ah, poor souls!" said the stranger. "Well for them that I looked back
and saw them! And well for me, too, for I shall have the more guests at
my feast. Wait awhile till I go down and call them, and we will eat and
drink together the livelong night. Happy am I, to whom Heaven sends so
many guests at once!"

And he ran back down the hill, waving his hand and shouting to the
merchants, while Theseus went slowly up the steep pass.

But as he went up he met an aged man, who had been gathering driftwood
in the torrent-bed. He had laid down his faggot in the road, and was
trying to lift it again to his shoulder. And when he saw Theseus, he
called to him and said:

"O fair youth, help me up with my burden, for my limbs are stiff and
weak with years."

Then Theseus lifted t