But being in the fen, why, there be worse places than
this to be found; for it is not a bog nor a slough, and there be reeds
in plenty near by."
"Do we make a fire?" asked Hugo, mindful of their experience in the
Isle of Axholme.
"Yea," answered the serving-man. "If we make the fire perchance some
evil person seeth us, perchance not. If we make not the fire, the chill
of the fen doth get into our bones. Seest thou how the mist arises? And
we be not like the holy hermits of these haunts to withstand chill and
vapors."
Hugo looked at him in surprise. "How knowest thou of holy hermits?" he
asked.
"I did even learn of them in Lincoln. It was the canon's servant who
did tell me of St. Guthlac and St. Godric. He did know more of the holy
hermits than of his master's service, I warrant thee. And that is an
evil knowledge for a servant that bids him talk to the neglect of his
master's good."
The fire alight, the two lay down, Hugo to fall asleep and Humphrey to
rise at intervals through the night and throw on reeds that so the fen
mists might work no harm to the boy, to whom he was now as devotedly
attached as ever he was to Josceline.
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