Page:Rewards and Fairies (Kipling, 1910).djvu/32

10 you take some human cradle-babe by fair dealing, and bring him up among yourselves on the far side of Cold Iron — as Oberon did in time past? Then you could make him a splendid fortune, and send him out into the world?"

‘"Time past is past time," says Sir Huon. "I doubt if we could do it. For one thing, the babe would have to be taken without wronging man, woman or child. For another, he’d have to be born on the far side of Cold Iron — in some house where no Cold Iron ever stood,— and for yet the third, he’d have to be kept from Cold Iron all his days till we let him find his fortune. No, it’s not easy," he said, and he rode off, thinking. You see, Sir Huon had been a man once.

‘I happened to attend Lewes Market next Woden’s Day even, and watched the slaves being sold there — same as pigs are sold at Robertsbridge Market nowadays. Only the pigs have rings on their noses, and the slaves had rings round their necks.’

‘What sort of rings?’ said Dan.

‘A ring of Cold Iron, four fingers wide, and a thumb thick, just like a quoit, but with a snap to it for to snap around the slave’s neck. They used to do a big trade in slave-rings at the Forge here, and ship them to all parts of Old England, packed in oak sawdust. But, as I was saying, there was a farmer out of the Weald who had bought a woman with a babe in her arms, and he didn’t want any encumbrances to her driving his beasts home for him.’