Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/40

 terling, do men go out to take snipes in their holiday raiment? I will tell thee, says the little lad: the weapons I bore against the catch were the shield to ward, and the spear to thrust, and the knife for the shearing of the heads: and I tell thee that when men go to battle they used to wend in their fair-dyed raiment. Then he stood up in the hall, the little one, but trim and goodly, with gleaming eyes and bright hair, and a word came into his mouth:

Well sung, kinsman! said the goodman: now shalt thou show us the snipes. But ere the lad might stoop to his bag the two women were upon him, clipping and kissing him as if they would never have enough thereof. He made a shift to thrust them off at last, and stooping to his bag he drew out something and cast it on the board, and lo the sheared-off head of a great grey wolf with gaping jaws and glistening white fangs, and the women shrank before it. But Osberne said: Lo the first of the catch, and here is the second. And