'
So to table they went, and Iron-face asked his son of his ways again,
and whether he was quite fixed in his mind not to go down to the
Plain and the Cities: 'For,' said he, 'the morrow of to-morrow shall
the merchants be here, and this were great news for them if the son
of the Alderman should be their faring-fellow back.'
But Face-of-god answered without any haste or heat: 'Nay, father, it
may not be: fear not, thou shalt see that I have a good will to work
and live in the Dale.'
And in good sooth, though he was a young man and loved mirth and the
ways of his own will, he was a stalwarth workman, and few could mow a
match with him in the hay-month and win it; or fell trees as
certainly and swiftly, or drive as straight and clean a furrow
through the stiff land of the lower Dale; and in other matters also
was he deft and sturdy.
CHAPTER IX. THOSE BRETHREN FARE TO THE YEWWOOD WITH THE BRIDE
Next morning Face-of-god dight himself for work, and took his axe;
for his brother Hall-face had bidden him go down with him to the Yew-
wood and cut timber there, since he of all men knew where to go
straight to the sticks that would quarter best for bow-staves;
whereas the Alderman had the right of hewing in that wood.
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