"Surely I heard a child's voice," he said out loud--"or was it some
pixy playing with the grey beast of the wood?"

"Here I am," I cried, running to him; "take me home, shepherd, for
I think that I am lost."

He caught me up in haste, looking round him the while.

"Child," he said, "how came you here--and to what were you
calling?"

"I was calling your dog," I answered, "but he is not friendly. Does
he look for a beating? for he ran away yonder when he heard you
coming."

"Ay, sorely beaten will that dog be if he comes near me just now,"
the man said grimly. "Never mind him, but tell me how you came
here, and where you belong."

So I told him that I was Oswald, the son of Aldred, the thane of
Eastdean, thinking, of course, that all men would know of us, and
so I bade him take me home quickly.

"I have been hunting," I said, showing him my unsavoury prey, which
by this time was frozen stiff in my belt. "Then I followed the hare
this was after, and I cannot tell how far I have come."

All this while the man had me in his strong arms, and he had looked
at the track of the dog in the snow, and now was walking swiftly