d got
aught so fair in her treasure. "Ye may wot well that I dare not show
either this or the pipe to my aunts, who would have taken them away
from me and cried horror at them; for oft would they cry out at the
evil things that dwelt in the ness and all the ills they brought on
the children of men. So I play on the pipe when none are by, and I
deck myself sitting in the sun with this fair necklace. Look thou,
lad, for it is a joy to show me unto thee so decked." And she did back
her raiment from her thin neck, and it was white as snow under the
woolen, and she did on the necklace, and Osberne thought indeed that
it sat well there, and that her head and neck looked grand and
graithly.

Then she said: "One other gift I gat from these cave-folk, if there be
such in the cave. On a day I was ailing, and could scarce hold up my
head for weariness and sickness; so I stole down hither and clomb with
all trouble and peril down to the cave, and fell to bewailing my
sickness, and scarce had I done ere I felt exceeding drowsy, and so
laid me down on the floor of the cave and fell asleep there, feeling
sick no longer even then. And when I awoke, after some three hours as
I deemed, there was nought amiss with me, and I climbed up to grass
again strong and merry, and making nought of the climb. And even so
have I done once and again, and never have the good folk failed me
herein. Hast thou ever had dealings with such-like creatures?"

Osberne answered, and told her of his meeting with the Dwarf that
time, and held up to her the whittle he had got, and flashed it in the
sun; and then he was about to tell her of Steelhead. But he remembered
that he was scarce free to tell any one of him, so he held his peace
thereof; but he said: "Meseemeth, maiden, that thou art not without
might, such friends as thou hast. But tell me, what canst thou do
beside the shepherding?" She said: "I can spin and weave, and bake the
bread and make the butter, and grind meal at the quern; but the last
is hard work, and I would not do it uncompelled, nor forsooth the
indoor work either, for nought but the shepherding is to my mind. But
now tell me, what canst thou do?" He said: "Meseems I cannot keep my
sheep together so well as thou; but last autumn I learned how to slay
wolves that would tear the sheep."

She rose up as if to look at him the better, and strained her hands
together hard, and gazed eagerly at him. He saw that she was wondering
at him and pra