So now the men of the Middle and Lower Dale made for their houses by
the road and the lanes and the meadows, and the men of the Upper Dale
and Burgstead went their ways along the Portway toward their halls,
with the throng of women and children that had come out to meet them.
And now men came home when it was yet early, and the long day lay
before them; and it was, as it were, made giddy and cumbered with the
exceeding joy of return, and the thought of the day when the fear of
death and sundering had been ever in their hearts. For these new
hours were full of the kissing and embracing of lovers, and the
sweetness of renewed delight in beholding the fair bodies so sorely
desired, and hearkening the soft wheedling of longed-for voices.
There were the cups of friends beneath the chestnut trees, and the
talk of the deeds of the fighting-men, and of the heavy days of the
home-abiders; many a tale told oft and o'er again. There was the
singing of old songs and of new, and the beholding the well-loved
nook of the pleasant places, which death might well have made nought
for them; and they were sweet with the fear of that which was past,
and in their pleasantness was fresh promise for the days to come.
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