le heart,
and, for the luck of the thing, had christened them with a drop of his
own blood, and a drop of Grendel's; so each heart had in it one little
drop of blood. Now he was to go out, and try his fortune.

He found a lad to come and take his place and see after the cows;
then he said good-bye to Grendel, and set off on a round of all the
villages of the plain.

At every inn where he put up, he called the country folk together to
the sound of his shepherd's bag-pipes, and showed them his play. It
was only himself and Grendel, no story at all, merely lovers parting
and meeting again, each believing the other dead, and in the end
living happily to the sound of cow-bells, that showed how rich they
were in herds.

And the villagers laughed and cried, and gave him pence, and a night's
lodging, and food; so that presently he was able to make himself a
little travelling-stage, and hire a piper to play dance-music for him.
But it was always the one story of himself and Grendel, and no other,
though the two puppets wore crowns upon their heads.

* * * * *

The little marionettes had hearts. That was the beginning of things:
they remembered nothing else. When their eyes had grown open to the
fact, then for them life had begun. After that they lived like bee and
blossom, only that the bee never flew away, and the honey remained in
the blossom.

How this came to pass was a question they never asked; why they loved
each other they did not know. If they had had to think of it they
would have said, 'It is because we cannot help it.' And every day
one same thing happened to them that they could not help, the most
beautiful thing in life. It came to them by instinct, taking hold of
them from head to feet and saying, 'love, love, love,' in all sorts of
wonderful ways.

Whenever this thing happened they began to move about softly, going to
and fro, and round and round, dancing, and holding each other by
the hand, putting their cheeks so close together that their eyelids
brushed, and sometimes their little hearts that heaved. And all the
while music from somewhere was giving a meaning to these things; and
over and over again, 'love, love, love,' was what it kept saying to
them.

Their happiness was so great, that they would begin playing with it,
pretending that it was all turned into grief. First he would kiss her
from forehead to chin, and into the hollow of her little throat; and
then all d