The Wood Beyond the World

not try the peril of them, and again for bogs impassable, he was fully three days more before he had quite come out of the stony wa

ift to cook the same, since he had with him flint and fire-steel. Moreover the further he went, the surer he was that he should soon come across

n ash-tree by a stream-side, nor asked what was o’clock, but had his fill of sleep, and even when he awoke in the fresh morning was little fain of rising, but lay betwixt sleeping and waking for some three

tnut and wych-elm, and hornbeam and quicken-tree, not growing in a close wood or tangled thicket,

reat, but exceeding fierce and terrible, and not like to the voice of any beast that he knew. As has been aforesaid, Walter was no faint-heart; but what with the weakness of his travail and hunger, what with the strangeness of his adventure and his loneliness, his spirit failed him; he turned round to

n his hams close by him. And when he lifted up his head, the dwarf sent out that fearful harsh voice

thou? Whence come

man; I hight Golden Walter; I co

asked thee to see what wise thou wouldst lie. I was sent forth to look for thee; and

he bore, and thrust it towards Walter, who t

ill get thee a coney or a hare, or a quail maybe. Ah, I forgot; thou art dainty, and wilt not eat flesh as I do, blood and all together, but must needs

etween his teeth. Then when he had eaten a while, for hunger compelled him, he said to t

ce white and red, like to thine; and hands white as thine, yea, but whiter; and the like it is underne

wilt think It fair if thou fallest into Its hands, and wilt repent it thereafter, as I did. Oh, the mocking and gibes of It, and the tears and shrieks of It; and the knife! What! sayest thou of my Lady? — What Lady? O a

e, and thereafter spake all panting: “Now I have told thee ov

iles walking upright, as Walter had seen his image on the quay of Langton; whiles bounding and rolling like a ball thrown

thing and a fear of he knew not what, that he might not move. Then he plucked

ould next fall in with. For soothly it seemed to him that it would be worse than death i

ype="