"Next I mind me of the hazels behind the People's Roof,
And the children running thither and the magpie flitting aloof,
And my hand in the hand of the Hall-Sun, as after the others we went,
And she soberly hearkening my prattle and the words of my intent.
And now would I call her 'Mother,' and indeed I loved her well.

"So I waxed; and now of my memories the tale were long to tell;
But as the days passed over, and I fared to field and wood,
Alone or with my playmates, still the days were fair and good.
But the sad and kindly Hall-Sun for my fosterer now I knew,
And the great and glorious warrior that my heart clung sorely to
Was but my foster-father; and I knew that I had no kin
In the ancient House of the Wolfings, though love was warm therein."

Then smiled the carline and said: "Yea, he is thy foster-father, and yet
a fond one."

"Sooth is that," said the Hall-Sun. "But wise art thou by seeming. Hast
thou come to tell me of what kindred I am, and who is my father and who
is my mother?"

Said the carline: "Art thou not also wise? Is it not so that the Hall-
Sun of the Wolfings seeth things that are to come?"

"Yea," she said, "yet have I seen waking or sleeping no other father save
my foster-father; yet my very mother I have seen, as one who should meet
her in the flesh one day."

"And good is that," said the carline; and as she spoke her face waxed