at a quieter pace proceeded beside him. "I forgot to give you any
directions or to speak about your bringing a pack-horse with you,
but I am glad you thought of it, for our steeds would have been
heavily burdened had all that baggage been divided between them."

"We go back more heavily laden than we came," Osgod remarked. "My
wardrobe was then of the scantiest, and your own has been considerably
added to since we came here. Truly, Wulf, I feel that I have changed
mightily in this year, and can scarce believe that it is but a
twelvemonth back since I flung down my hammer and started on my
tramp to Guildford with a change of clothes dangling from the end
of my cudgel. I was glad when you and your party overtook me, for
I was badly scared once or twice when I met a rough fellow or two
on the way, though, fortunately, they did not deem me worth robbing.
We could give a good account of four or five of such knaves now."

"There has been a change indeed, Osgod, and in me as much as in
you, though I have not shot up into such huge proportions. I was a
page then, and had learned but to obey. I am a boy still, but I
have begun to learn to rule; at any rate, to rule myself. I have
not conquered my fault of hastiness altogether."

Osgod smiled broadly.

"You are quick in temper still, Wulf. You remember it was but
yesterday that you rated me soundly because I had fed your hawks
early, and they were too lazy to fly when you wanted them."

"Well, it was annoying," Wulf laughed; "and you deserved rating,
since you have been told over and over again that the hawks were