Puck of Pook's Hill Part 3

'But what happened to Hugh the novice?' said Una.

'And the sword?' said Dan.

Puck looked down the meadow that lay all quiet and cool in the shadow of Pook's Hill. A corncrake jarred in a hay-field near by, and the small trouts of the brook began to jump. A big white moth flew unsteadily from the alders and flapped round the children's heads, and the least little haze of water-mist rose from the brook.

'Do you really want to know?' Puck said.

'We do,' cried the children. 'Awfully!'

'Very good. I promised you that you shall see What you shall see, and you shall hear What you shall hear, though It shall have happened three thousand year; but just now it seems to me that, unless you go back to the house, people will be looking for you. I'll walk with you as far as the gate.'

'Will you be here when we come again?' they asked.

'Surely, sure-ly,' said Puck. 'I've been here some time already. One minute first, please.'

He gave them each three leaves-one of Oak, one of Ash, and one of Thorn.

'Bite these,' said he. 'Otherwise you might be talking at home of what you've seen and heard, and-if I know human beings-they'd send for the doctor. Bite!'

They bit hard, and found themselves walking side by side to the lower gate. Their father was leaning over it.

'And how did your play go?' he asked.

'Oh, splendidly,' said Dan. 'Only afterwards, I think, we went to sleep.

It was very hot and quiet. Don't you remember, Una?'

Una shook her head and said nothing.

'I see,' said her father.

'Late-late in the evening Kilmeny came home, For Kilmeny had been she could not tell where, And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare.

But why are you chewing leaves at your time of life, daughter? For fun?'

'No. It was for something, but I can't azactly remember,' said Una.

And neither of them could till-

A TREE SONG

_Of all the trees that grow so fair,_ _Old England to adorn,_ _Greater are none beneath the Sun,_ _Than Oak, and Ash, and Thorn._ _Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good Sirs_ _(All of a Midsummer morn)!_ _Surely we sing no little thing,_ _In Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!_

_Oak of the Clay lived many a day,_ _Or ever aeneas began;_ _Ash of the Loam was a lady at home,_ _When Brut was an outlaw man;_ _Thorn of the Down saw New Troy Town_ _(From which was London born);_ _Witness hereby the ancientry_ _Of Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!_

_Yew that is old in churchyard mould,_ _He breedeth a mighty bow;_ _Alder for shoes do wise men choose,_ _And beech for cups also._ _But when ye have killed, and your bowl is spilled,_ _And your shoes are clean outworn,_ _Back ye must speed for all that ye need,_ _To Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!_

_Ellum she hateth mankind, and waiteth_ _Till every gust be laid,_ _To drop a limb on the head of him,_ _That anyway trusts her shade_ _But whether a lad be sober or sad,_ _Or mellow with ale from the horn,_ _He will take no wrong when he lieth along_ _'Neath Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!_

_Oh, do not tell the Priest our plight,_ _Or he would call it a sin;_ _But-we have been out in the woods all night_ _A-conjuring Summer in!_ _And we bring you news by word of mouth-_ _Good news for cattle and corn-_ _Now is the Sun come up from the South,_ _With Oak, and Ash, and Thorn!_

_Sing Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, good Sirs_ _(All of a Midsummer morn)!_ _England shall bide till Judgment Tide,_ _By Oak, and Ash and Thorn!_

YOUNG MEN AT THE MANOR

YOUNG MEN AT THE MANOR

They were fis.h.i.+ng, a few days later, in the bed of the brook that for centuries had cut deep into the soft valley soil. The trees closing overhead made long tunnels through which the suns.h.i.+ne worked in blobs and patches. Down in the tunnels were bars of sand and gravel, old roots and trunks covered with moss or painted red by the irony water; foxgloves growing lean and pale towards the light; clumps of fern and thirsty shy flowers who could not live away from moisture and shade. In the pools you could see the wave thrown up by the trouts as they charged hither and yon, and the pools were joined to each other-except in flood time, when all was one brown rush-by sheets of thin broken water that poured themselves chuckling round the darkness of the next bend.

This was one of the children's most secret hunting-grounds, and their particular friend, old Hobden the hedger, had shown them how to use it.

Except for the click of a rod hitting a low willow, or a switch and tussle among the young ash-leaves as a line hung up for the minute, n.o.body in the hot pasture could have guessed what game was going on among the trouts below the banks.

'We's got half-a-dozen,' said Dan, after a warm, wet hour. 'I vote we go up to Stone Bay and try Long Pool.'

Una nodded-most of her talk was by nods-and they crept from the gloom of the tunnels towards the tiny weir that turns the brook into the mill-stream. Here the banks are low and bare, and the glare of the afternoon sun on the Long Pool below the weir makes your eyes ache.

When they were in the open they nearly fell down with astonishment. A huge grey horse, whose tail-hairs crinkled the gla.s.sy water, was drinking in the pool, and the ripples about his muzzle flashed like melted gold. On his back sat an old, white-haired man dressed in a loose glimmery gown of chain-mail. He was bareheaded, and a nut-shaped iron helmet hung at his saddle-bow. His reins were of red leather five or six inches deep, scalloped at the edges, and his high padded saddle with its red girths was held fore and aft by a red leather breastband and crupper.

'Look!' said Una, as though Dan were not staring his very eyes out. 'It's like the picture in your room-"Sir Isumbras at the Ford."'

The rider turned towards them, and his thin, long face was just as sweet and gentle as that of the knight who carries the children in that picture.

'They should be here now, Sir Richard,' said Puck's deep voice among the willow-herb.

'They are here,' the knight said, and he smiled at Dan with the string of trouts in his hand. 'There seems no great change in boys since mine fished this water.'

'If your horse has drunk, we shall be more at ease in the Ring,' said Puck; and he nodded to the children as though he had never magicked away their memories the week before.

The great horse turned and hoisted himself into the pasture with a kick and a scramble that tore the clods down rattling.

'Your pardon!' said Sir Richard to Dan. 'When these lands were mine, I never loved that mounted men should cross the brook except by the paved ford. But my Swallow here was thirsty, and I wished to meet you.'

'We're very glad you've come, sir,' said Dan. 'It doesn't matter in the least about the banks.'

He trotted across the pasture on the sword-side of the mighty horse, and it was a mighty iron-handled sword that swung from Sir Richard's belt. Una walked behind with Puck. She remembered everything now.

'I'm sorry about the Leaves,' he said, 'but it would never have done if you had gone home and told, would it?'