Page:The Sundering Flood - Morris - 1898.djvu/97

 It would make us merrier, and belike kinder, if such there were.

The goodman turned pale, and stammered out that these were all the women at Wethermel; and John cried out: It is even as I told thee, warrior. Heed it not; there be fair women up and down the Dale, and thou shalt have one or two of these with little pains, either for love or for fear. Hardcastle laughed and said: Thou shalt go and fetch them for me, Surly John, and see which shall serve thee best, love or fear. All laughed thereat, for they well knew his ill temper and his cowardice, and he turned red and blue for rage. But as for Osberne, he could not help thinking of the pretty maid whose hand he had held at the Cloven Mote last winter; and he thought that if Hardcastle did her any wrong, Board-cleaver might well look on the sun in her behalf.

A little after Osberne turns to John and sees his knife lying on the board, a goodly one, well carven on the heft. So he says: Thy whittle seems to me both good and strange, John, reach it into my hand. John did so, and the youngling takes hold of it by the back near the point with his thumb and finger, and twists it till it is like a ram's horn. Then he gives it back to John and says: Thy knife is now stranger than it was, John, but 't is not of so much use as erst. All marvelled at this feat, all save the fool Surly John, who raises a great outcry that his knife is marred. But Hardcastle, whose head is now