Page:Wood Beyond the World.djvu/41

 Now have I no will to do either this or that. It is wont that maketh me do, or refrain.

Said Walter: Tell me this; why didst thou slay the man? did he any scathe to thee?

Said the elder: When I slew him, I deemed that he was doing me all scathe: but now I know that it was not so. Thus it was; I would needs go where he had been before, and he stood in the path against me; and I overthrew him, and went on the way I would.

What came thereof? said Walter.

Evil came of it, said the carle.

Then was Walter silent a while, and the old man spake nothing; but there came a smile in his face that was both sly and somewhat sad. Walter looked on him and said: Was it from hence that thou wouldst go that road?

Yea, said the carle.

Said Walter: And now wilt thou tell me what that road was; whither it went and whereto it led, that thou must needs wend it, though thy first stride were over a dead man?

I will not tell thee, said the carle.

Then they held their peace, both of them,