nd he
looked up and saw folk riding toward the house, and so presently they
rode through the garth gate; and there was no man but he about the house,
so he rose up and went to meet them, and he saw that they were but three
in company: they had weapons with them, and their horses were of the
best; but they were no fellowship for a man to be afraid of; for two of
them were old and feeble, and the third was dark and sad, and drooping of
aspect: it seemed as if they had ridden far and fast, for their spurs
were bloody and their horses all a-sweat.

Hallblithe hailed them kindly and said: "Ye are way-worn, and maybe ye
have to ride further; so light down and come into the house, and take
bite and sup, and hay and corn also for your horses; and then if ye needs
must ride on your way, depart when ye are rested; or else if ye may, then
abide here night-long, and go your ways to-morrow, and meantime that
which is ours shall be yours, and all shall be free to you."

Then spake the oldest of the elders in a high piping voice and said:
"Young man, we thank thee; but though the days of the springtide are
waxing, the hours of our lives are waning; nor may we abide unless thou
canst truly tell us that this is the Land of the Glittering Plain: and if
that be so, then delay not, lead us to thy lord, and perhaps he will make
us content."

Spake he who was somewhat less stricken in years than the first: "Thanks
have thou! but we need something more than meat and drink, to wit the
Land of Living Men. And Oh! but the time presses."

Spake the sad and sorry carle: "We seek the Land where the days are many:
so many that he who hath forgotten how to laugh, may learn the craft
again, and forget the days of Sorrow."

Then they all three cried aloud and said:

"Is this the Land? Is this the Land?"

But Hallblithe wondered, and he laughed and said: "Wayfarers, look under
the sun down the plain which lieth betwixt the mountains and the sea, and
ye shall behold the meadows all gleaming with the spring lilies; yet do
we not call this the Glittering Plain, but Cleveland by the Sea. Here
men die when their hour comes, nor know I if the days of their life be
long enough for the forgetting of sorrow; for I am young and not yet a
yokefellow of sorrow; but this I know, that they are long enough for the
doing of deeds that shall not die. And as for Lord, I know not this
word, for here dwell we, the sons of the Raven, in good fellowship, with
our