an when first I saw thee; is there any high-tide toward
at thy stead?"

"Nay," she said; "I did this because I looked to see thee today,
whereas the other time we happed on each other unawares. But hast thou
done any more great deeds?"

He laughed and said: "Nay, nay, let me grow a few days older yet.
Nevertheless there is this new thing, that this morning I have brought
thee a gift which I deem I may to flit to thee, and I shall give it to
thee with a good will if thou wilt promise that thou wilt not part
with it ever."

"With all my heart will I promise that," she said; "but tell me what
it is; show it to me."

He drew it forth and held it up between his finger and thumb, and
said: "It is a golden penny, very fair, and I deem it comes from some
far country. My mother gave it to me when I was very young; yet I
remember that she bade me part not with it, save I should give it to
one unto whom I wished all luck, for that she deemed that luck went
with it. Now thou art so fair and so dear, and my only fellow of like
age, that I wish luck to thee as much as luck can be found: so I will
flit it to thee this wise, that I will do it up in a piece of cloth
and tie it to the head of this arrow (which is of no account), and
shoot it over to thee." And therewith he knelt down and fell to
wrapping it up in the rag.

As for the maiden, she was all eager, and quivering with joy at the
getting of such a gift; yet she spake and said: "O how good thou art
to me: yet I deem not that thou shouldst give me thy mother's gift.
And moreover why shouldst thou shoot away thy luck? It may be that I
am not doomed to be lucky, as surely thou art; and it may well be that
thou mayst give me thy luck and make thee less lucky, without eking
mine, if unluck be my weird."

Now though he had set his heart on giving the gold to the fair child,
yet her words seemed wise to him, and he said: "What then shall we
do?" She said: "Abide a while till I think of it."

So they were silent a while, both of them, till the little maid looked
up and said: "Is it a round thing?" "Yea," said he. "What is there
upon it?" she said. Quoth Osberne: "On one side be two warriors, and
on the other the Rood and certain letters."

She thought again and said: "How much were it marred if it were
halved, one warrior and half a cross?" He said: "That hangs upon this,
who has one half and who the other." She said "How would it be, since
I can see that thou wishest that I