ckness; perhaps he had gone to his Gods to
learn how to do us new harm. But he went, and we breathed more freely.
The women sang again; the children were not so much guarded; our flocks
grazed far out. I took mine yonder'--he pointed inland to the hazy
line of the Weald--'where the new grass was best. They grazed north. I
followed till we were close to the Trees'--he lowered his voice--'close
there where the Children of the Night live.' He pointed north again.

'Ah, now I remember a thing,' said Puck. 'Tell me, why did your people
fear the Trees so extremely?'

'Because the Gods hate the Trees and strike them with lightning. We can
see them burning for days all along the Chalk's edge. Besides, all the
Chalk knows that the Children of the Night, though they worship our
Gods, are magicians. When a man goes into their country, they change his
spirit; they put words into his mouth; they make him like talking water.
But a voice in my heart told me to go toward the north. While I watched
my sheep there I saw three Beasts chasing a man, who ran toward the
Trees. By this I knew he was a Child of the Night. We Flint-workers fear
the Trees more than we fear The Beast. He had no hammer. He carried a
knife like this one. A Beast leaped at him. He stretched out his knife.
The Beast fell dead. The other Beasts ran away howling, which they would
never have done from a Flint-worker. The man went in among the Trees. I
looked for the dead Beast. He had been killed in a new way--by a single
deep, clean cut, without bruise or tear, which had split his bad heart.
Wonderful! So I saw that the man's knife was magic, and I thought how to
get it,--thought strongly how to get it.

'When I brought the flocks to the shearing, my Mother the Priestess
asked me, "What is the new thing which you have seen and I see in your
face?" I said, "It is a sorrow to me"; and she answered, "All new things
are sorrow. Sit in my place, and eat sorrow." I sat down in her place by
the fire, where she talks to the ghosts in winter, and two voices spoke
in my heart. One voice said, "Ask the Children of the Night for the
Magic Knife. It is not fit that The Beast should master man." I listened
to that voice.

'One voice said, "If you go among the Trees, the Children of the Night
will change your spirit. Eat and sleep here." The other voice said, "Ask
for the Knife." I listened to that voice.

'I said to my Mother in the morning, "I go away to find a thing for the
p