'tis but a tale."

"Yea," quoth Ralph laughing, "even as the tales of the ghosts
and bugs that abide the wayfarer on the other side of yonder
white moveless cloud."

David laughed in his turn and said: "Thou hast me there;
and whether or no, these tales are nothing to us, who shall never
leave Utterbol again while we live, save in such a company as this."
Then he held his peace, but presently spake again: "Hast thou
heard anything, then, of those tales of the Well at the World's End?
I mean others beside that concerning the lord of Goldburg?"

"Yea, surely I have," said Ralph, nowise changing countenance. Said David:
"Deemest thou aught of them? deemest thou that it may be true that a man
may drink of the Well and recover his youth thereby?"

Ralph laughed and said: "Master, it is rather for me to ask
thee hereof, than thou me, since thou dwellest so much nigher
thereto than I have done heretofore."

David drew up close to him, and said softly: "Nigher? Yea, but belike
not so much nigher."

"How meanest thou?" said Ralph.

Said David: "Is it so nigh that a man may leave home and come
thereto in his life-time?"

"Yea," said Ralph, "in my tales it is."