ravelled, I would tell
you that they were content with whatsoever weather God sent to them; for
if the weather were pleasant, as upon that first day of their journey,
then they would travel very cheerfully up hill and down dale, in
sunshine or shadow as the case might be; and if the weather were foul,
then they would abide wheresoever heaven sent them shelter wherein to
stay until the storm would pass by and be gone.

For this is true, that even wintry weather cannot chill a cheerful
heart; wherefore, when the north wind would bluster loud and
boisterously, and when the falling snow would be covering all the earth
with frozen white, then those two worthy champions would be well content
to lodge them at some wayside inn. For there they might warm them beside
the roaring fire, whereof the blaze would shine in red sparks of light
at several places upon the polished plates of their armor, and whilst
they took cheer in the heat of the fire, and whilst they listened to the
storm, how it beat and drummed upon the windows, and whilst they
harkened at the wind, how it roared and thundered about the gables of
the house, that while they would take great pleasure in the company of
the good folk of the neighborhood, who would be gathered around a merry
bowl of hot mulled ale, with roasted crab-apples bobbing afloat in it,
singing merry songs the while and telling jolly contes, and laughing and
making rude and homely sport in several ways that afforded good
entertainment to those two belted knights who listened thereunto.

Thus you may know how in several ways it was that those two good worthy
knights travelled during that considerable time when they were
journeying together as companions in arms, for in this wise I have taken
great pleasure in telling you thereof.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: _Sir Percival and Sir Sagramore come to a fair valley._]

Now after those two had thus been companions in amity together for the
space of a year or a little more than a year, it chanced upon a certain
day that they found themselves at a place where a woodland ceased and
where there began a very fair valley with a smooth shining river winding
like a ribbon down the length thereof. And they sat at the head of that
valley and they gazed down for some while thereinto, and they beheld
that valley with great joy because it was so fair and fruitful. For in
it were several meadow-lands, all smiling with verdure, and there w