ye will give me aught I will
take it with a good will; and chiefly if ye have a fair knife or two and
a roll of linen cloth, that were a good refreshment to me. But in any
case what I have to give is free to you and welcome."

The shipmaster laughed: "Friend," said he, "we can thee mickle thanks for
all that thou biddest us. And wot well that we be no lifters or
sea-thieves to take thy livelihood from thee. So to-morrow, if thou
wilt, we will go with thee and upraise the hunt, and meanwhile we will
come aland, and walk on the green grass, and water our ship with thy good
fresh water."

So the old carle went back to his house to make them ready what cheer he
might, and the shipmen, who were twenty and one, all told, what with the
mariners and Arnold and Walter's servants, went ashore, all but two who
watched the ship and abode their turn. They went well-weaponed, for both
the master and Walter deemed wariness wisdom, lest all might not be so
good as it seemed. They took of their sail-cloths ashore and tilted them
in on the meadow betwixt the house and the ship, and the carle brought
them what he had for their avail, of fresh fruits, and cheeses, and milk,
and wine, and cyder, and honey, and there they feasted nowise ill, and
were right fain.

CHAPTER VI: THE OLD MAN TELLS WALTER OF HIMSELF. WALTER SEES A SHARD IN
THE CLIFF-WALL

But when they had done their meat and drink the master and the shipmen
went about the watering of the ship, and the others strayed off along the
meadow, so that presently Walter was left alone with the carle, and fell
to speech with him and said: "Father, meseemeth thou shouldest have some
strange tale to tell, and as yet we have asked thee of nought save meat
for our bellies: now if I ask thee concerning thy life, and how thou
camest hither, and abided here, wilt thou tell me aught?"

The old man smiled on him and said: "Son, my tale were long to tell; and
mayhappen concerning much thereof my memory should fail me; and withal
there is grief therein, which I were loth to awaken: nevertheless if thou
ask, I will answer as I may, and in any case will tell thee nought save
the truth."

Said Walter: "Well then, hast thou been long here?"

"Yea," said the carle, "since I was a young man, and a stalwarth knight."

Said Walter: "This house, didst thou build it, and raise these garths,
and plant orchard and vineyard, and gather together the neat and the
sheep, or did some other do