Now when spring came again, needs must Osberne drive the sheep up to
the bents, though he had liefer haunted the riverside, for sore he
desired to cross the Flood and find out tidings there. And though he
were a child, yet he would by his own choice have fared to seek out
the pretty maiden whose hand he had held on the edge of the river that
even, but livelihood drave him to look to the sheep now that the
spring grass was growing.
So on a certain day when March was wearing towards April he drave his
sheep up over the crown of the bent; and there he went with them a way
where, the land still rising, the ground was hard and rocky but clean,
and the grass sweet for as scanty as it was, growing in little hollows
and shelters round about the rocks. Wherefore the sheep were nimble in
their feeding, and led him on long, till they and he were come into a
little grassy dale with a stream running through it. There they were
neither to hold nor to bind, but strayed all up and down the dale and
over the crest of the bent thereof, and would not come to his call;
and his dog was young and not very wise, and could do little to help
him. So he began to think he had best gather what of the sheep he
could, and drive them home and fold them, and then come back and hunt
for the rest, perhaps with the help of his grandsire; but as the ones
he could get at were all close anigh, and he was hot and weary with
running hither and thither and holloaing to sheep and dog, he would go
down to the stream and drink and rest awhile first. And even so he
did, and lay down by the water and drank a long draught; but while he
was about it he thought he heard footsteps coming down the hill-side
over the greensward.
Howsoever, he had his drink out, and then rose to his knees and looked
up, and therewith sprang hastily to his feet, for a tall man was
coming on toward him not ten yards from the stream. He was not to say
afeard by the sight, yet somewhat startled, for the man was not his
grandsire, nor forsooth did he seem to be one of the Dale-dwellers.
For he was so clad that he had a grey hawberk on him of fine ringmail,
and a scarlet coat thereunder embroidered goodly; a big gold ring was
on his left arm, a bright basnet on his head; he was girt with a
sword, and bare a bow in his hand, and a quiver hung at his back. He
was a goodly man, young by seeming, bright-faced and grey-eyed; his
hair was yellow and as fine as silk, and it hung down over his
shoulders.
Now Osberne put as good a face on the meeting as he might, and gave
the newcomer the sele of the day, and he hailed him again in a clear
loud voice, and they stood looking on each other across the stream a
while. Then the newcomer laughed pleasantly and said: "Hast thou any
name that I may call thee by?"
"I am Osberne of Wethermel," said the youngling. "Aha," said the man,
"art thou he that slew the leash of great grey wolves last autumn, who
had put two armed men to flight the day before?" Said Osberne,
reddening: "Well, what was I to do? There fell a leash of hill-dogs on
our sheep, and I made them forbear. Was it a scathe to thee, lord?"
The newcomer laughed again: "Nay, my lad," said he, "I love them no
more than ye do; they were no dogs of mine. But what doest thou here?"
"Thou seest," said the youngling, "that I am shepherding our sheep;
and a many have run from me, and I cannot bring them back to me. So I
was going home with those that be left."
"Well," says the man, "we can soon mend that. Rest thou here and abide
my coming back again, and I will fetch them for thee."
"With a good will," says Osberne, "and I shall can thee many thanks
therefor."
So the man strode on and through the stream, and went his ways up the
further bent, and Osberne sat down on a stone and abode him in no
little wonder. The man was gone somewhat more than an hour, and then
Osberne sees the sheep topping the crest of the bent, and pouring down
into the dale, and the newcomer came next driving them down; and when
they came to the stream they stood there and moved no more than if
they were penned.
Then the newcomer came through them up to Osberne, and said in a kind
voice, though it was loud: "What, art thou here yet? I deemed that
thou wouldst have run home."
"Why should I have run?" said the lad. "For fear of me," said the
other. Said Osberne: "I was somewhat afeard when I first saw thee, and
thou with the grey byrny and the gleaming helm; but then I saw that
thou wert no ill man, and I feared thee no longer. Withal I was fain
to see thee again; for thou art goodly and fair to behold, and I am
fain to remember thee."
Said the man: "Even so have others said ere now." "Were they women?"
said Osberne. "Thou art brisk and keen, youngling," said the man.
"Yes, they were women: but it was long ago." "Yet thou lookest no old
man," said Osberne. "I have seen old men: they be nought like to
thee."
"Heed thou not that," said the helmed man; "but tell me, how old a man
art thou?" Said Osberne: "When this April is three days old I shall be
thirteen years old."
Said the man of the waste: "Well, thou art stalwarth for thy years,
and that liketh me well, and meseems that we shall be friends
hereafter: and when thou art a grown man I shall seem no older to
thee; nay we shall be as brothers. Belike I shall see thee again
before long; meanwhile, I give the this rede: when thou mayest, seek
thou to the side of the Sundering Flood, for meseemeth that there
lieth thy weird. Now there is this last word to be said, that I came
hither today to see thee, and in token thereof I have brought thee a
gift. Canst thou shoot in the bow aught?" Said Osberne: "There is one
at home, and my grandsire hath bent it for me at whiles, and taught me
how to shoot somewhat; but I am little deft therein."
Then the man betook him the bow which he had in his hand and said:
"Here is one that shall make thee deft; for whoso hath this as a gift
from me shall hit what he shooteth at if he use my shafts withal, and
here be three which I will give thee; and if thou take heed, thou
shalt not find them easy to lose, since ever they shall go home. But
if ever thou lose two of them, then take the third and go into some
waste place where there is neither meadow nor acre, and turn to the
north-east and shoot upward toward the heavens, and say this rhyme:
A shaft to the north,
Come ye three, come ye forth;
A shaft to the east,
Come three at the least;
A shaft to the sky,
Come swift, come anigh!
Come one, one and one,
And the tale is all done.
And then shalt thou find the arrows lying at thy feet. Now take the
bow and arrows, and drive me thy sheep betwixt us to the top of the
bent that looks down on Wethermel."
Then Osberne took the bow and shafts, and he all quivering with joy
and delight, and then the two of them together went back across the
waste with the sheep before them, and as they went side by side the
man said many things, and this at last: "Now that I know thy name, it
is like that those wouldst know mine and who I am; but my very name I
may not tell thee, for thy tongue has no word for it, but now and when
we meet again thou mayst call me Steelhead: and thou shalt know that
when we next meet I shall be arrayed all otherwise than now. In that
array I deem thou wilt know me, but look to it that thou show no sign
thereof before other men; and as to the bow, thou wilt not be eager
belike to say of whom thou hadst it. Lo now! we have opened up
Wethermel; fare thou well, bold bairn, and forget not my redes."
And therewith he turned about and gat him gone into the waste again,
striding hugely; and the lad was sorry to lack him, for he deemed him
the goodliest and best man that he had ever met.