mere sorcery. Yet she called to mind the word of the wood-mother
that they should meet again, and took heart thereby; and she was glad
in that she had had her will, and shaken off the guile and thraldom
of the witch. Much she thought of the wood-mother, and loved her,
and wondered had she yet sought into and seen her welfare by the
burning of a hair of that tress of hers; and therewith she looked on
that tress of Habundia's hair and kissed it.

All day the Sending Boat sped on, and she saw no land and nought to
tell of. It was but wave and sky and the familiar fowl of the lake,
as coot, and mallard, and heron, and now and then a swift wood-dove
going her ways from shore to shore; two gerfalcons she saw also, an
osprey, and a great ern on his errand high up aloft.

Birdalone waked in her loneliness till the day was spent, and
somewhat worn of the night; then she fell asleep for weariness; but
so it was, that before dusk she had deemed that a blue cloud lay
before her in the offing which moved not.

She slept the short night through, and was awakened by the boat
smiting against something, and when her eyes opened she saw that she
was come aland and that the sun was just risen. She stood up, and
for the first minute wondered where she was, and she beheld her
nakedness and knew not what it meant; then she loosened her hair, and
shook its abundance all about her, and thereafter she turned her eyes
on this new land and saw that it was fair and goodly. The flowery
grass came down to the very water, and first was a fair meadow-land
besprinkled with big ancient trees; thence arose slopes of vineyard,
and orchard and garden; and, looking down on all, was a great White
House, carven and glorious. A little air of wind had awakened with