ss on her side.

He spake not, for he was eyeing her closely, and she might not speak
for a while for lack of breath. At last she said: "Now are we as near
to each other as we may be today; yea for many days, or it may be for
all our lives long: so now let us talk." She set her two feet together
and held her hands in front of her, and so stood as if she looked for
him to begin. But the words came not speedily to his mouth, and at
last she said: "I wonder why thou wilt not speak again; for thy laugh
was as the voice of a dear bird; and thy voice is beauteous, so loud
and clear."

He laughed, and said: "Well then, I will speak. Tell me what thou art.
Art thou of the Faery? for thou art too well shapen to be of the
Dwarfkin." She clapped her hands together and laughed; then she said:
"I laughed not as mocking thy question, but for joy to hear thy voice
again. Nay, nay, I am no faery, but of the children of men. But thou,
art thou not of the sons of the Land-wights?"

"No more than thou art," said he. "I am also a goodman's son, but my
father is dead, and my mother also, and I live at home at Wethermel up
the water, with my grandsire and grandam."

Said she: "Are they kind to thee?" The lad drew himself up: "I am kind
to them," said he. "How goodly thou art!" she said; "that was why I
dreamed thou must be of the Land-wights, because I have seen divers
men, some old, some young like to thee, but none half so goodly." He
smiled, and said: "Well, I thought thou wert of the Faery because thou
art goodly and little. I have seen a pretty maid not long since, but
she was older than thou, I deem, and far taller. But tell me, how old
art thou?" She said: "When May is half worn I shall be of thirteen
winters."

"Lo now," said he, "we be nigh of an age; I was thirteen in early
April. But thou hast not told me where thou dwellest, and how." She
said: "I dwell at Hartshaw Knolls hard by. I am the daughter of a
goodman, as thou art, and my father and mother are dead, so that my
father I never saw, and now I dwell with my two aunts and they be both
older than was my mother."

"Are they kind to thee?" said the lad, laughing that he must cast back
her question. "Whiles," said she, laughing also, "and whiles not:
maybe that is because I am not always kind to them, as thou art to thy
folk." He answered nought, and she was silent a while; then he said:
"What is in thy mind, maiden?" "This," she said, "that I am thinking
how fair a chan