The young man turned red with anger; but ere he could speak
Dame Katherine said sharply: "Hold thy peace, Clement!
What hast thou to meddle or make in the matter? If our young lord
hath will to ride out and see the world, why should we let him?
Yea, why should his father let him, if it come to that?
Take my word for it that my gossip shall go through the world
and come back to those that love him, as goodly as he went forth.
And hold! here is for a token thereof."

Therewith she went to an ark that stood in the corner,
and groped in the till thereof and brought out a little necklace
of blue and green stones with gold knobs betwixt, like a pair
of beads; albeit neither pope nor priest had blessed them;
and tied to the necklace was a little box of gold with something
hidden therein. This gaud she gave to Ralph, and said to him:
"Gossip, wear this about thy neck, and let no man take it from thee,
and I think it will be salvation to thee in peril, and good luck
to thee in the time of questing; so that it shall be to thee
as if thou hadst drunk of the WELL AT THE WORLD'S END."

"What is that water?" said Ralph, "and how may I find it?"

"I know not rightly," she said, "but if a body might come by it,
I hear say it saveth from weariness and wounding and sickness;
and it winneth love from all, and maybe life everlasting.
Hast thou not heard tell of it, my husband?"

"Yea," said the chapman, "many times; and how that whoso hath drunk
thereof hath the tongue that none may withstand, whether in buying