Now by then it was high noon, and the sun very hot, and as they lay on
the grass after this converse the lad looked on the water, and he was
besweated, and longed for the bright pools of the stream after the
manner of boys; and he said at last: "I were fain to take to the water
this hot noon, if it please thee."
"It is well thought of, lad," said Steelhead, "and that the more, as I
must needs see thee naked if I am to strengthen thee as I am minded to
do." So they did off their raiment, both of them, and went into the
biggest of the pools hard by; and if Steelhead were a noble-looking
man clad, far nobler was he to look on naked, for he was both big and
well shapen, so that better might not be. As for Osberne, there looked
but little of him when he was unclad, as is the fashion of lads to be
lank, yet for his age he was full well shapen. So Steelhead came out
of the water presently, and clad himself, while Osberne yet played a
while. Then Steelhead called the lad to him all naked as he was, and
said: "Stand thou before me, youngling, and I will give thee a gift
which shall go well with Boardcleaver." And the lad stood still before
him, and Steelhead laid his hands on the head of him first, and let
them abide there a while; then he passed his hands over the shoulders
and arms of the boy, and his legs and thighs and breast, and all over
his body; and therewith he said: "In our days and the olden time it
was the wont of fathers to bless their children in this wise; but for
thee, thy father is dead, and thy nighest kinsman is little-hearted
and somewhat of a churl. Thus then have I done to thee to take the
place of a father to thee, I who am of the warriors of while agone.
And I think it will avail thee; and it is borne in upon me that before
very long thou wilt need this avail, if thou art to live and do the
deeds I would have thee. Now it is done, so cover thee in thy raiment
and rest a while; and then I will depart and leave thee to the might
which I have given thee, and the valiance which hath grown up in thine
heart."
So they lay down on the greensward and rested; and Osberne had
fetched along with him cakes and cheese and a keg of good drink, and
they took their bever there in all content. But for that time
Steelhead spake no more of his folk and the old days, but about the
fowl and fish and other wild things that haunted that clough, and of
shooting in the bow and so forth. Then they arose and went to their
horses, and Steelhead said to Osberne: "How is it with the might of
thy body, lad? Canst thou do better in wielding of Boardcleaver?" So
the youngling stretched himself and took the sword by the hilts and
shook it and waved it about, and tossed it in the air and caught it
again, and said: "Seest thou, master? Meseems my might is so much
eked, that I deem I could swim the stream of the Sundering Flood and
overcome it." Quoth the hillman, laughing: "Yea, and we know that that
would please the well; but let it be, my son, I bid thee; for no race
of folk who have ever dwelt in the Dale from the beginning of the
world have ever won across the Sundering Flood. So now we depart for
this present; but as for this way-beast I ride, thy grandsire shall
lose nothing and gain much by him; for I took him but to pleasure
thee, and I shall send him back to Wethermel ere many days are past.
Farewell, my son!"
So he kissed the youngling, and rode away south across the stream and
over the other side of the clough. Osberne stood beside his horse,
looking after him and the way he had taken, and then mounted and rode
his way homeward, somewhat downcast at first for the missing of this
new father. But after a while, what for his new gift and his
freshly-gained might, and the pride and pleasure of life, he became
all joyous again, as though the earth were new made for him.
Ye may well think that the very next time (which indeed was on the
morrow) that Osberne went to the Bight of the Cloven Knoll, he went
girt with Boardcleaver, and showed it to his friend; and she looked
somewhat sober at the sight of it, and said: "I pray thee, Osberne,
draw it not forth from the sheath." "In nowise may I draw it," said
he, "for I am told never to draw it till I have my foe before me; for
ever it will have a life betwixt the coming forth from the sheath and
its going back again." "I fear me," she said, "that thou wilt have to
draw it often, so that many a tale will be told of it, and perhaps at
last the death of thee." And therewith she put her hands up to her
face and wept. But he comforted her with kind words, till the tears
were gone.
Then she looked at him long and lovingly, and said at last: "I know
not how it is, but thou seemest to me changed and grown less like a
child, as though some new might had come to thee. Now I may not ask
thee who has done this to thee, and given thee the sword, for if thou
mightest thou wouldst have told me. But tell me this, hast thou all
this from a friend or a foe?" He said: "Dost thou indeed see that I
may not tell thee who is the giver; but I may tell thee that it is a
friend. But art thou not glad of my gain?" She smiled and said: "I
should be glad, and would be if I might; but somehow meseemeth that
thou growest older quicker than I do, and that it is ill for me, for
it will sunder us more than even now we be sundered."
And again he had to comfort her with sweet words; and he shot across
to her an ouch which Stephen had given him that morning, so soon she
was herself again, and sat and told him a tale of old times; and they
parted happily, and Osberne gat him home to Wethermel. But he had
scarce been at home a minute or two when there came one riding to the
door, a young man scarlet-clad and gay, and his horse was dight with
the goodliest of saddles and bridles, and the bit of silver, but for
all that, both Osberne and Stephen, who was standing in the door, knew
the horse for their own nag, on whom Waywearer had ridden off the
yestermorn.
Now the lad cries out: "Is this the stead of Wethermel?" "Yea," said
Osberne; "what wouldst thou?" "I would see the goodman," says the
swain. "He is yet afield," said Osberne, "but if thou wilt come in and
have the bite and the sup thou mayst abide him, for he will not be
long."
"I may not," said the swain, "for time fails me; so I will say to thee
what I was to say to him, which is no long spell, to wit that
Waywearer sendeth home the horse the goodman lent him, and bids him
keep the gear on him in his memory." Therewith is he off the horse in
a twinkling and out through the garth gate, and away so swiftly that
they lost sight of him in a moment. Stephen laughed and said to
Osberne: "Waywearer is nowise debt-tough; now will our goodman be glad
tonight. But see thou! Look to the nag's shoes! If ever I saw silver
to know it, they be shod therewith." And so it was as he said, and the
silver nigh an inch thick.
Soon cometh home the goodman, and they tell him the tidings, and he
grows wondrous glad, and says that luck has come to Wethermel at last.
But thereafter they found that horse much bettered, so that he was the
best nag in all the Wethermel pastures.