cheek toward him
for a parting kiss, which forsooth he gave her somewhat unheedfully;
for he was looking hard toward the other shore to see if he could make
out the shape of Elfhild amongst the women there; as he had done
whenever he gat a chance of it all day long, but had failed wholly
therein.

Three days afterward he kept tryst with Elfhild, and asked her if she
had been at the Mote, and she told him No; that her aunts went every
time but always left her behind. Then she said smiling: "And this time
they have come back full of thy praises, for the tale of thee, and the
slaying of the robber, has come over to our side; and one of them, the
youngest, had thee shown to her by one of the folk, and she saith that
thou art the fairest lad that ever was seen: and therein she is not
far wrong."

He laughed and reddened, and told for tidings how he had fared at the
Mote, and Elfhild belike was not best pleased to hear of the fair
damsel who was so fond of kissing; but in all honesty she rejoiced
when Osberne told how hard he had looked for her on the other side of
the water. So they made the most of their short day, as indeed they
had need to do, for through the winter, when the snow was on the earth
and the grass grew not, the sheep were all shut up in the folds and
the cotes, and there was no shepherding toward; so that Elfhild was
hard put to it for some pretence for getting away from the house, and
their trysts had to be further between them than they had been; and
not seldom, moreover, Elfhild failed at the trysting-place, and
Osberne had to go sorrowfully away, though well he wotted it was by no
fault of his playmate.

So wore the winter tidingless, and spring came again, and again the
two met oftener; and great feast they made the first day, when Elfhild
came to the ness with her head and her loins wreathed with the winter
wolfsbane. It was a warm and very clear day of February, and Elfhild
of her own will piped to her sheep and danced amongst them; and
Osberne looked on her eagerly, and he deemed that she had grown bigger
and sleeker and fairer; and her feet and legs (for still she went
barefoot) since they had not the summer tan on them, looked so
dainty-white to him that sore he longed to stroke them and kiss them.
And this, belike was the beginning to him of the longing of a young
mad, which afterwards was so sore on him, to be with his friend and
embrace her and caress her.

So they met often that springti