[27] Orig. reads _whether_.
[28] Places or appointments. This is one of the best stories of the kind
in the present or any other collection, in our own or other languages.
The construction is excellent.
[29] Weened (guessed).
[30] Orig. reads _saw_.
[31] weened.
[32] shells.
[33] In orig. _by_.
[34] Orig. reads _saw_.
+ _Of the foure elementes where they shoulde sone be founde._ xvii.
+ In the old world when all thyng could speke, the iiii elementys[38]
mette to geder for many thynges whych they had to do, because they must
meddell alway one wyth a nother, and had communicacion to gyder of
dyuers maters; and by cause they coulde not conclude all theyr maters at
that season, they appoyntyd to breke communicacion for that tyme and to
mete agayne another tyme. Therfore eche one of them shewed to other
where theyr most abydyng was and where theyr felows shoulde fynde them,
yf nede shuld requyre; and fyrste the erthe sayde: bretherne, ye knowe
well as for me I am permanent alway and not remouable; therfore ye may
be sure to haue me alway whan ye lyste. The wather sayde: yf ye lyst to
seke me, ye shall be sure to haue me under a toft of grene rushes or
elles in a womans eye. The wynde sayde: yf ye lyst to speke wyth me, ye
shall be sure to haue me among aspyn leuys or els in a womans tong. Then
quod the fyre: yf any of you lyst to seke me, ye shall euer be sure to
fynd me in a flynt stone er elles in a womans harte.
By thys tale ye may lerne as well the properte of the iiii elementys as
the properteis[39] of a woman.