Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/220

 us amidst all this talk. So now do ye women dight the board and light the candles within the hall, that we may eat and drink together this last time for a long while.

Even so it was done, and all folk sat to meat, and thereafter was the drink brought in, and they drank all a cup to Osberne, and he to them; and then was the cup filled for Wethermel, and then again for the Dale; and the last cup was for Osberne's luck. Then came a word into his mouth, and he stood up and sang:

From the Wethermel reek I set me to seek The world-ways unkenned And the first of the end, For when out there I be Each way unto me Shall seem nought save it lead Back to Wethermel's need, And many a twilight twixt dawning and day Shall the feet of the waker dream wending the way.

When the war-gale speeds Point-bitter reeds, And the edges flash O'er the war-board's clash, Through the battle's rent Shall I see the bent, And the gables' peace Midst the Dale's increase, And the victory-whooping shall seem to me oft As the Dale-shepherd's cry where the reek wends aloft.

When to right and left The ranks are cleft,