IV


Even the geese in the creek seemed to know that he was a stranger
and to distrust him, for they cackled and, spreading their wings,
fled cackling up the stream. As he neared the house, the little
girl ran around the stone chimney, stopped short, shaded her eyes
with one hand for a moment and ran excitedly into the house. A
moment later, the bearded giant slouched out, stooping his head as
he came through the door.

"Hitch that 'ar post to yo' hoss and come right in," he thundered
cheerily. "I'm waitin' fer ye."

The little girl came to the door, pushed one brown slender hand
through her tangled hair, caught one bare foot behind a deer-like
ankle and stood motionless. Behind her was the boy--his dagger
still in hand.

"Come right in!" said the old man, "we are purty pore folks, but
you're welcome to what we have."

The fisherman, too, had to stoop as he came in, for he, too, was
tall. The interior was dark, in spite of the wood fire in the big
stone fireplace. Strings of herbs and red-pepper pods and twisted
tobacco hung from the ceiling and down the wall on either side of
the fire; and in one corner, near the two beds in the room, hand-
made quilts of many colours were piled several feet high. On
wooden pegs above the door where ten years before would have been