Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/75

 Then he stood up and cried out: There, it is done, and neither of the warriors is scathed, for there was a waste place betwixt them. Now then for the shaft and the bow! The maiden looked eagerly with knitted brows, and soon saw Osberne take up the shaft and nock it on the bow-string. Then he said: Take heed and stand still and the halfling shall be thine. Look now, I will send the shaft so that it shall go in the grass-grown cleft betwixt the two big stones behind thee to thy right hand. He raised his bow therewith, and saw how she gathered her skirts about her, as if she would not have them hinder the shaft. Then he loosed, and the shaft flew, but she abode still a little; and he laughed and said: Go, maiden, and find the shaft and the gold. Then she turned and ran to the cleft, and took out the arrow, and did off the wrapping with trembling fingers and gat the gold and looked on it, and cried out: O the fair warrior! such like shalt thou be one day upon a penny, dear child.

Then she came forward again and said: Now this is strange, that neither last time nor now have we told each other our names: now I will tell thee that my name is Elfhild, of Hart Shaw Knolls. What is thine! Elfhild, my child, said he, my name is Osberne, Wulfgrim's son, and I am of Wethermel, as I told thee. Yet belike it is not so strange that we have not told our names hitherto, and I hope no ill-luck will go with our telling them, for I suppose that people give each other names when there are many of them, and they would know one from another. But as to us, there be only two of us, so that if I call thee