Now I perceive that thou longest for the wood
and the innermost of it; and wot ye what? This longing will at
whiles entangle the sons of our chieftains, though this Alderman that
now is hath been free therefrom, which is well for him. For, time
was this longing came over me, and I went whither it led me:
overlong it were to tell of all that befell me because of it, and how
my heart bled thereby. So sorry were the tidings that came of it,
that now meseemeth my heart should be of stone and not my face, had
it not been for the love wherewith I have loved the sons of the
kindred. Therefore, son, it were not ill if ye went west away with
the merchants this winter, and learned the dealings of the cities,
and brought us back tales thereof.'
But Gold-mane cried out somewhat angrily, 'I tell thee, foster-
father, that I have no mind for the cities and their men and their
fools and their whores and their runagates. But as for the wood and
its wonders, I have done with it, save for hunting there along with
others of the Folk. So let thy mind be at ease; and for the rest, I
will do what the Alderman commandeth, and whatso my father craveth of
me.
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