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At
last he looked up and said: Must it be to-day? Wilt thou not abide
with us night-long, and go thy ways in the early morning?
Now she scarce knew how to gainsay him, so wretched as the old carle
looked; so it came to this, that she yeasaid the abiding till to-
morrow. Then suddenly he became gay and merry, and he kissed her
hand, and fell to much speaking, telling tales of little import
concerning his earlier days. But when she asked him again of how he
came there, and what meant the great ruined house, then he became
foolish and wandering, and might scarce answer her; whereas otherwise
he was a well-spoken old carle of many words, and those of the
grandest.
Then changed his mood again, and he fell to bewailing her departure,
and how that henceforth he should have none to speak to him with
understanding. Then she smiled on him and said: But yonder babes
will grow up; month by month they will be better fellows unto thee.
Fair child, he said, thou dost not know. My days to come are but
few, so that I should see but little of their waxing in any case.


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