Forth they rode then through the frank and up on to the shepherd
country, and whereas their horses were of the best, and they had no
sumpter-beast with them till they came to Upham, where they must
needs have victual, they made but five days of it to the place where
the road turned aside from the country of Mostwyke. There then they
drew rein, and Birdalone lighted down from her horse, and they all,
and they lay upon the grass and ate and drank together.
But when they were done, spake Birdalone and said: Dear friends,
this is the hour and the place when we must needs part; for ye shall
go back again to Five Crafts, and do what I have bidden of you, and
do your will, and wend your ways with your livelihood unto Utterhay.
But as for me, I must go my ways first unto Greenford, and thence to
seek my friends from whom erst I was fleeing when ye first became my
friends. Now perchance ye will say that I have taken you up in my
need, and cast you aside at my pleasure; but I may only say that
there be at present two deals of my life, and of one of them have ye
been partakers, and of the other ye may not be.
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