long shallow pools, with, as it were, grassy causeways
between them, grown over here and there with ancient alder
trees; but the stony slope whereon they had reined up bent
round the plain mostly to the east, as though it were the
shore of a great water; and far away to the south the hills
of the forest rose up blue, and not so low at the most, but
that they were somewhat higher than the crest of the White
Horse as ye may see it from the little Berkshire hills above
the Thames. Down on the firm greensward there was indeed a
herd of wild horses feeding; mallard and coot swam about the
waters; the whimbrel laughed from the bent-sides, and three
herons stood on the side of the causeway seeking a good
fishing-stead.

Simon sat a-horseback looking askance from the marish to
Christopher, and said nothing a while; then he spake in a
low croaking voice, and said: "So, little King, we have
come to the Long Pools; now I will ask thee, hast thou been
further southward than this marish land?"

"That have I," said the lad, "a day's journey further; but
according to the tales of men it was at the peril of my
life."

Simon seemed as if he had not noted his last word; he said:
"Well then, since thou knowest the wild and the wood,
knowest thou amidst of the thickets there, two lumps of bare
hills, like bowls turned bottom up, that rise above the
trees, and on each a tower, and betwixt them a long house."