mountains; so I went, and I filled my belly with the fruit of my own
desires, and a bitter meat was that; but now that it has passed
through me, and I yet alive, belike I am more of a grown man for
having endured its gripe. Even so may it well be with thee, son; so
go if thou wilt; and thou shalt go with my blessing, and with gold
and wares and wain and spearmen.'

'Nay,' said Face-of-god, 'I thank thee, for it is well offered; but I
will not go, for I have no lust for the Plain and its Cities; I love
the Dale well, and all that is round about it; therein will I live
and die.'

Therewith he fell a-musing; and the Bride looked at him anxiously,
but spake not. Sooth to say her heart was sinking, as though she
foreboded some new thing, which should thrust itself into their merry
life.

But the old man Stone-face took up the word and said:

'Son Gold-mane, it behoveth me to speak, since belike I know the
wild-wood better than most, and have done for these three-score and
ten years; to my cost. Now I perceive that thou longest for the wood
and the innermost of it; and wot ye what? This longing will at
whiles entangle the sons of our chieftains, though this Alderman that
now is hath been free therefrom, which is well for him. For, time
was this longing came over me, and I went whither it led me:
overlong it were to tell of all that befell me because of it, and how
my heart bled thereby. So sorry were the tidings that came of it,
that now meseemeth my heart should be of stone and not my face, had
it not been for the love wherewith I have loved the sons of the