Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/64

 on a stone, and when I had wept a little I thought I would comfort myself with the music of the pipe. But lo, a wonder! for no sooner had a note or two sounded, than all the sheep came running up to me, bleating and mowing, and would rub against my sides as I sat piping, and home I brought every head in all glee. And even so has it befallen ever since; and that was hard on a year agone. Fair boy, what dost thou think I am doing now? Osberne laughed. Disporting thee in speech with a friend, said he. Nay, said she, but I am shepherding sheep.

And she drew forth the pipe from her bosom and fell to playing it, and a ravishing sweet melody came thence, and so merry, that the lad himself began to shift his feet as one moving to measure, and straightway he heard a sound of bleating, and sheep came running toward the maiden from all about. Then she arose and ran to them, lest they should shove each other into the water; and she danced before them, lifting up her scanty blue skirts and twinkling her bare feet and legs, while her hair danced about her; and the sheep, they too capered and danced about as if she had bidden them. And the boy looked on and laughed without stint, and he deemed it the best of games to behold. But when she was weary she came back to the head of the ness and sat down again as before, and let the sheep go where they would.