e them growing," says I, "and thought--your
birthday--they might pleasure you a little, mayhap--"

"Please me?" says she, taking them. "Please me--O the dear, beautiful
things, I love them!" And she buries her face among them. "'Twas kind
of you to bring them for me, Martin!" says she, her face hidden in the
flowers, "Indeed you are very good to me! After all, you are that same
dear Martin I knew long ago, that boy who used to brandish his rusty
sword and vow he'd suffer no evil to come near me, and yearned for
ogres and dragons to fight and slay on my behalf. And one day you
caught a boy pulling my hair."

"It was very long hair even then!" says I.

"And he made your lip bleed, Martin."

"And I hit him on the nose!" says I.

"And he ran away, Martin."

"And you bathed my lip in the pool and afterwards you--you--"

"Yes I did, Martin. Though 'tis a long time to remember."

"I--shall never forget!" says I. "Shall you?"

Here she buries her face in her flowers again.

"As to the pots, Martin, there are four quite unbroken, will you help
me bear them to our refuge, breakfast will be ready."

"Breakfast is a sweet word!" quoth I. "And as to these things, if you
will have them, well and good!"

And thus, she with her flowers and I with the gallipots, we came to our
habitation.

"What do we work at to-day?" she questioned as we rose from our morning
meal.

"To-day I make you a pair of shoes."

"How may I aid you, Martin?"

"In a thousand ways," says I, and I plucked a great fan-shaped leaf
that grew adjacent. "First sit you down! And now give me your foot!"
So, kneeling before her, I traced out the shape of her foot upon the
leaf and got no further for a while, so that presently she goes about
her household duties leaving me staring at my leaf and scratching my
head, puzzling out how I must cut and shape my goat-skin. Well-nigh
all that morning I sat scheming and studying how best I might achieve
my purpose, and the end of it was this:

(Sketch of a leaf cut to shape.)

This shape I cut from the leaf and with it went to find my lady; then,
she sitting upon the stool, I took off one of her shoes (and she all
laughing wonderment) and fitting this pattern to her foot, found it
well enough for shape, though something too large. I now took the
goat-skin and, laying it on the table, cut therefrom a piece to my
pattern; then with one of my nails ground to a sharp point like a
cobbler's awl, I pierc