you will be
less pert of tongue after I tell what I found out in the corn-bins
yesterday," he said.

The maid whirled. "What did you find out, you mischief-full brat?"

He continued to stroke the dog's head in dignified silence. "If you mean
the--the brown-cloaked beggar, let me inform you that that is naught."

Busying himself with pulling burrs from the hound's ears, the page began
to hum softly.

She came a step nearer, and her voice wheedled. "It was only that he
was distressed for want of drink, poor fellow, and followed me into
the storehouse when he saw me go in to fill the master's flagon. It was
naught but a swallow. My lord would be the last to grudge a harmless
body--"

"Harmless?" the page said sternly. "Did I not hear him tell you the same
as that he was an English spy?"

The girl abandoned the last shred of her dignity, to come and stand
before him, nervously fingering her apron. "For the dear saints' sake,
let no one hear you say that, good Fridtjof! Alas, how you have got
it twisted! He is an Englishman who bent his head for food in the evil
days. And now they that bought him will not set him loose, so he has
cast off their yoke and fled to the Danes to get freedom and fortune. He
was on his way to join your people when he stopped to beg food. I could
not be so hard of heart as to refuse, though Hildelitha's hand would
be hot about my ears did she suspect it. Say that you will hold your
tongue, sweet lad, and I will make boot with anything you like."

He was very deliberate about it, the page, pursing his rosy mouth into
any number of judicial puckers; but at last he conceded, "Now, since you
know for certain that he is not one of Edmund's spies,--and you are so
penitent, as is right,"--pausing, he regarded her severely,--"if I do
promise, will you make a bargain to put an end to your silly behavior
toward my lord? Will you undertake to deliver his dishes into my hands,
and leave it for me to pass his cup?"

"Yes, in truth; by Father Ingulph's book!" the maid cried, wringing her
hands.

The page made her a magnanimous gesture. "In that case I will not be so
mean as to refuse you," he consented. And he sat smiling to himself in
sly content after she had hurried away.

Emboldened by that smile, the dog suddenly laid aside his soberness of
demeanor. Pouncing upon a fagot which had fallen from one of the
loads, he brought it in his teeth, with shining eyes and much frantic
tail-wagging, and rub