wrapped in many rags, for thou hast a most grievous toothache. Dost
understand ?"

"But I have no toothache. My teeth do not pain me at all. I -- "
expostulated the child.

"Tut, tut," interrupted the little old woman. "Thou hast a toothache, and
so thy face must be wrapped in many rags. And listen, should any ask thee
upon the way why thy face be so wrapped, thou art to say that thou hast a
toothache. And thou do not do as I say, the King's men will take us and we
shall be hanged, for the King hateth us. If thou hatest the English King
and lovest thy life do as I command."

"I hate the King," replied the little boy. "For this reason I shall do as
thou sayest."

So it was that they set out that night upon their long journey north toward
the hills of Derby. For many days they travelled, riding upon two small
donkeys. Strange sights filled the days for the little boy who remembered
nothing outside the bare attic of his London home and the dirty London
alleys that he had traversed only by night.

They wound across beautiful parklike meadows and through dark, forbidding
forests, and now and again they passed tiny hamlets of thatched huts.
Occasionally they saw armored knights upon the highway, alone or in small
parties, but the child's companion always managed to hasten into cover at
the road side until the grim riders had passed.

Once, as they lay in hiding in a dense wood beside a little open glade
across which the road wound, the boy saw two knights enter the glade from