Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/56

 and see if thou canst shoot us something toothsome, for both of feathers and fur there is foison on the hill-side. So they went together, and betwixt whiles of the shepherding Osberne shot a whole string of heath-fowl and whimbrel; and ever he hit that which he shot at, so that the arrows were easy indeed to find, since they never failed to be in the quarry.

The goodman was well pleased with his catch, and Stephen licked his lips over the look of the larder. And the next day the lad let Stephen go alone to the hill, and he himself took a horse and went up the water a ten mile toward the mountain, and there he slew a hart of ten tines with one arrow, and brought the quarry home across the horse, to the joy of all the household, and the goodman was not rueing his bargain with Stephen the Eater. So it went on that every two or three days Osberne fared afield after catch, and but seldom came home empty-handed, and the other days he did as he would and went where he listed. And now he began to follow the rede of Steelhead, and went oftenest by the side of the Sundering Flood, but as yet he had gone up the water and not down.