said Osberne. "I have seen old men: they be nought like to
thee."

"Heed thou not that," said the helmed man; "but tell me, how old a man
art thou?" Said Osberne: "When this April is three days old I shall be
thirteen years old."

Said the man of the waste: "Well, thou art stalwarth for thy years,
and that liketh me well, and meseems that we shall be friends
hereafter: and when thou art a grown man I shall seem no older to
thee; nay we shall be as brothers. Belike I shall see thee again
before long; meanwhile, I give the this rede: when thou mayest, seek
thou to the side of the Sundering Flood, for meseemeth that there
lieth thy weird. Now there is this last word to be said, that I came
hither today to see thee, and in token thereof I have brought thee a
gift. Canst thou shoot in the bow aught?" Said Osberne: "There is one
at home, and my grandsire hath bent it for me at whiles, and taught me
how to shoot somewhat; but I am little deft therein."

Then the man betook him the bow which he had in his hand and said:
"Here is one that shall make thee deft; for whoso hath this as a gift
from me shall hit what he shooteth at if he use my shafts withal, and
here be three which I will give thee; and if thou take heed, thou
shalt not find them easy to lose, since ever they shall go home. But
if ever thou lose two of them, then take the third and go into some
waste place where there is neither meadow nor acre, and turn to the
north-east and shoot upward toward the heavens, and say this rhyme:

A shaft to the north,
Come ye three, come ye forth;
A shaft to the east,
Come three at the least;
A shaft to the sky,
Come swift, come anigh!
Come one, one and one,
And the tale is all done.

And then shalt thou find the arrows lying at thy feet. Now take the
bow and arrows, and drive me thy sheep betwixt us to the top of the
bent that looks down on Wethermel."

Then Osberne took the bow and shafts, and he all quivering with joy
and delight, and then the two of them together went back across the
waste with the sheep before them, and as they went side by side the
man said many things, and this at last: "Now that I know thy name, it
is like that those wouldst know mine and who I am; but my very name I
may not tell thee, for thy tongue has no word for it, but now and when
we meet again thou mayst call me Steelhead: and thou shalt know that
when we next meet I shall be arrayed all otherwise than now. In that
array I