ce it was that I should have seen thee, for thou hast
made me so glad." Said he: "We can see each other again belike and
make it less of a chance." "O yea," she said, and was silent a while.
Said he: "I wot not why it was that thou wert in the cave: and tell
me, is it not exceeding perilous, the climbing up and down? Why wilt
thou do that? Also, I must tell thee, that this was another cause why I
thought thou wert of the Faery, that thou camest out of the cave."

Said she: "I will tell thee all about the cave; but first as to the
peril of going thither and coming hence: wouldst thou be very sorry if
I were lost on the way?" "Yea," said he, "exceeding sorry." "Well,"
said she, "then fear it not, for it is so much a wont of mine that to
me there is no peril therein: yet I am glad that thou wert afraid for
me." "I was sore afraid," said Osberne.

"Now as to the cave," said the maiden. "I found it out two years ago,
when I was very little, and the women had been less than kind to me.
And thither may I go whenas I would that they should seek me not;
because folk say that it is a dwelling of the Dwarfs, and they fear to
enter it. Besides, when I think of my kinswomen coming down the rock
to find me therein, and they be tall, and one stiff, as if she were
cut out of timber, and the other exceeding fat, that makes me merry!"

And therewith she sat down on the very edge of the cliff with her
little legs hanging over the water, and laughed, rocking to and fro in
her laughter, and Osberne laughed also. But he said: "But art thou not
afraid of the Dwarfs?" She said: "Dear bairn or boy, I had been there
many times before I heard tell of the Dwarfs, and I gat no harm, and
after I had heard the tale I went still, and still gat no harm; nay I
will tell thee somewhat: I gat gifts, or such they seemed unto me.
First I had to herd the sheep and take them to the best grass, and
whiles they strayed and were wearisome to me, and I came home with
divers missing, and then would I be wyted or even whipped for what was
no fault of mine. And one such time I betook me to the cave and sat
therein and wept, and complained to myself of my harm, and when I went
out of the cave I saw on the ledge close to my foot a thing lying, and
I took it up, and saw that it was a pipe with seven holes therein, and
when I blew into it, it made sweet and merry little music. So I
thought it great prize, and went away home with it, with all my
sorrows well healed. Bu