man's bat, and scratted by the
woman's nails to pieces. He looked like a Robertsbridge hopper on a
Monday morning.

'"Robin," said he, while I was trying to clean him down with a bunch of
hay, "I don't quite understand folk in housen. I went to help that old
woman, and she hit me, Robin!"

'"What else did you expect?" I said. "That was the one time when you
might have worked one of your charms, instead of running into three
times your weight."

'"I didn't think," he says. "But I caught the man one on the head that
was as good as any charm. Did you see it work, Robin?"

'"Mind your nose," I said. "Bleed it on a dockleaf--not your sleeve, for
pity's sake." I knew what the Lady Esclairmonde would say.

'_He_ didn't care. He was as happy as a gipsy with a stolen pony, and
the front part of his gold coat, all blood and grass stains, looked like
ancient sacrifices.

'Of course the People of the Hills laid the blame on me. The Boy could
do nothing wrong, in their eyes.

'"You are bringing him up to act and influence on folk in housen, when
you're ready to let him go," I said. "Now he's begun to do it, why do
you cry shame on me? That's no shame. It's his nature drawing him to his
kind."

'"But we don't want him to begin _that_ way," the Lady Esclairmonde
said. "We intend a splendid fortune for him--not your flitter-by-night,
hedge-jumping, gipsy-work."

'"I don't blame you, Robin," says Sir Huon, "but I _do_ think you might
look after the Boy more closely."

'"I've kept him away from Cold Iron these sixteen years," I said. "You
know as well as I do, the first time he touches Cold Iron he'll find his
own fortune, in spite of everything you intend for him. You owe me
something for that."

'Sir Huon, having been a man, was going to allow me the right of it, but
the Lady Esclairmonde, being the Mother of all Mothers, over-persuaded
him.

'"We're very grateful," Sir Huon said, "but we think that just for the
present you are about too much with him on the Hill."

'"Though you have said it," I said, "I will give you a second chance." I
did not like being called to account for my doings on my own Hill. I
wouldn't have stood it even that far except I loved the Boy.

'"No! No!" says the Lady Esclairmonde. "He's never any trouble when he's
left to me and himself. It's your fault."

'"You have said it," I answered. "Hear me! From now on till the Boy has
found his fortune, whatever that may be, I vow to you all on my Hi