st easily win thy way hither before noon on any day.'

"So I tied my goatskin shoes to my feet, and drave my goats together,
and we went up together out of the dale, and were in the wide-spreading
plain of the waste; and the carline said: 'Dost thou know the quarters
of the heaven by the sun?' 'Yea,' said I. 'Then,' quoth she, 'whenso
thou desirest to depart and come into the world of folk that I have
told thee of, set thy face a little north of west, and thou shalt fall
in with something or somebody before long; but be speedy on that day as
thou art light-footed, and make all the way thou canst before thy
mistress comes to know of thy departure; for not lightly will any one
let loose such a thrall as thou.'

"I thanked her, and she went her ways over the waste, I wotted not
whither, and I drave my goats home as speedily as I might; the mistress
meddled not with me by word or deed, though I was short of my due tale
of yarn. The next day I longed sore to go to the dale and meet the
carline but durst not, and the next day I fared in likeways; but the
third day I longed so to go, that my feet must needs take me there,
whatsoever might befall. And when I had been in the dale a little,
thither came the carline, and sat down by me and fell to teaching me
wisdom, and showed me letters and told me what they were, and I learned
like a little lad in the chorister's school.

"Thereafter I mastered my fear of my mistress and went to that dale day
by day, and learned of the carline; though at whiles I wondered when my
mistress would let loose her fury upon me; for I called to mind the
threat she had made to me on the day when she offered up my white goat.
And I made up my mind to this, that if she fell upon me with deadly
intent I would do my best to slay her before she should slay me. But
so it was, that now again she held her hand from my body, and scarce
cast a word at me ever, but gloomed at me, and fared as if hatred of me
had grown great in her heart.

"So the days went by, and my feet had worn a path through the
wilderness to the Dale of Lore, and May had melted into June, and the
latter days of June were come. And on Midsummer Day I went my ways to
the dale according to my wont, when, as I as driving on my goats
hastily I saw a bright thing coming over the heath toward me, and I
went on my way to meet it, for I had no fear now, except what fear of
my mistress lingered in my heart; nay, I looked that everything I saw