the winter grey,
Through the hall-reek then
And the din of men
Shall I yet behold
Sif's hair of gold
And Hild's bright feet,
The battle-fleet,
And from threshold to hearthstone, like as songs of the South,
To and fro shall be fleeting the words of thy mouth.

Then his song dropped down, and they stood looking silently at each
other, and tears ran over the little maiden's cheeks. But she spake
first and said: "Most lovely is thy lay, and there is this in it, that
I see thou hast made it while thou wert sitting there, for it is all
about thee and me, and how thou lovest me and I thee. And full surely
I know that thou wilt one day be a great and mighty man. Yet this I
find strange in thy song almost to foolishness, that thou speakest in
it as I were a woman grown, and thou a grown man, whereas we be both
children. And look, heed it, what sunders us, this mighty Flood, which
hath been from the beginning and shall be to the end."

He answered not a while, and then he said: "I might not help it; the
words came into my mouth, and meseems they be better said than unsaid.
Look to it if I do not soon some deed such as bairns be not used to
doing." "That I deem is like to be," she said, "yet it shall be a long
time ere folk shall call us man and woman. But now, fair child, I must
needs go homeward, and thou must let me go or I shall be called in
question." "Yea," said Osberne, "yet I would give thee a gift if I
might, but I know not what to give thee save it were my Dwarf-wrought
whittle." She laughed and said: "That were a gift for a man but not
for me; keep it, dear and kind lad. I for my part were fain of giving
thee somewhat: but as for my pipe, I fear me that I could never throw
it across the water. I would I might reach thee with my gold and gem
necklace, but I fear for it lest the Sundering Flood devour it. What
shall I do then?"

"Nought at all, dear maiden," said the lad, "I would no wise take thy
pipe from thee, which saveth thee from blame and beating; and as to
thy necklace, that is woman's gear even as the whittle is man's. Keep
it safe till thou art become a great lady."

"Well," she said, "now, let me go; it almost seems to me as I might
not till thou hast given me leave."

"Yea," said he; "but first, when shall I come to see thee again, and
thou me? Shall it be tomorrow?" "O nay," she said, "it may not be,
lest they take note of me if I come down here over often. Let it be
a