"Who calls?" one said loudly, and from the hillside climbed hastily
into the open a tall man, bearded and strong, and with a
pleasant-looking, anxious face. He was dressed in leather like our
shepherds, and like them carried but quarterstaff and seax for
weapons. I suppose that I was in some shadow, for at first he did
not see me.
"Surely I heard a child's voice," he said out loud--"or was it some
pixy playing with the grey beast of the wood?"
"Here I am," I cried, running to him; "take me home, shepherd, for
I think that I am lost."
He caught me up in haste, looking round him the while.
"Child," he said, "how came you here--and to what were you
calling?"
"I was calling your dog," I answered, "but he is not friendly. Does
he look for a beating? for he ran away yonder when he heard you
coming."
"Ay, sorely beaten will that dog be if he comes near me just now,"
the man said grimly. "Never mind him, but tell me how you came
here, and where you belong."
So I told him that I was Oswald, the son of Aldred, the thane of
Eastdean, thinking, of course, that all men would know of us, and
so I bade him take me home quickly.
"I have been hunting," I said, showing him my unsavoury prey, which
by this time was frozen stiff in my belt. "Then I followed the hare
this was after, and I cannot tell how far I have come.
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