Rewards and Fairies | Page 5

Dan. 'After all you told us last year, too!'
'Only, the minute you went away, you made us forget everything,' said
Una.
Puck laughed and shook his head. 'I shall this year, too. I've given you
seizin of Old England, and I've taken away your Doubt and Fear, but
your memory and remembrance between whiles I'll keep where old
Billy Trott kept his night-lines - and that's where he could draw 'em up
and hide 'em at need. Does that suit?' He twinkled mischievously.
'It's got to suit,'said Una, and laughed. 'We Can't magic back at you.'
She folded her arms and leaned against the gate. 'Suppose, now, you
wanted to magic me into something - an otter? Could you?'
'Not with those boots round your neck.' 'I'll take them off.' She threw
them on the turf. Dan's followed immediately. 'Now!' she said.
'Less than ever now you've trusted me. Where there's true faith, there's
no call for magic.' Puck's slow smile broadened all over his face.
'But what have boots to do with it?' said Una, perching on the gate.
'There's Cold Iron in them,' said Puck, and settled beside her. 'Nails in
the soles, I mean. It makes a difference.'
'How?' 'Can't you feel it does? You wouldn't like to go back to bare feet
again, same as last year, would you? Not really?'
'No-o. I suppose I shouldn't - not for always. I'm growing up, you
know,' said Una.
'But you told us last year, in the Long Slip - at the theatre - that you
didn't mind Cold Iron,'said Dan.
'I don't; but folks in housen, as the People of the Hills call them, must
be ruled by Cold Iron. Folk in housen are born on the near side of Cold
Iron - there's iron 'in every man's house, isn't there? They handle Cold
Iron every day of their lives, and their fortune's made or spoilt by Cold
Iron in some shape or other. That's how it goes with Flesh and Blood,

and one can't prevent it.'
'I don't quite see. How do you mean?'said Dan.
'It would take me some time to tell you.'
'Oh, it's ever so long to breakfast,' said Dan. 'We looked in the larder
before we came out.' He unpocketed one big hunk of bread and Una
another, which they shared with Puck.
'That's Little Lindens' baking,' he said, as his white teeth sunk in it. 'I
know Mrs Vincey's hand.' He ate with a slow sideways thrust and grind,
just like old Hobden, and, like Hobden, hardly dropped a crumb. The
sun flashed on Little Lindens' windows, and the cloudless sky grew
stiller and hotter in the valley.
'AH - Cold Iron,' he said at last to the impatient children. 'Folk in
housen, as the People of the Hills say, grow careless about Cold Iron.
They'll nail the Horseshoe over the front door, and forget to put it over
the back. Then, some time or other, the People of the Hills slip in, find
the cradle-babe in the corner, and -'
'Oh, I know. Steal it and leave a changeling,'Una cried.
'No,' said Puck firmly. 'All that talk of changelings is people's excuse
for their own neglect. Never believe 'em. I'd whip 'em at the cart-tail
through three parishes if I had my way.'
'But they don't do it now,' said Una.
'Whip, or neglect children? Umm! Some folks and some fields never
alter. But the People of the Hills didn't work any changeling tricks.
They'd tiptoe in and whisper and weave round the cradle-babe in the
chimney-corner - a fag-end of a charm here, or half a spell there - like
kettles singing; but when the babe's mind came to bud out afterwards, it
would act differently from other people in its station. That's no
advantage to man or maid. So I wouldn't allow it with my folks' babies
here. I told Sir Huon so once.'
'Who was Sir Huon?' Dan asked, and Puck turned on him in quiet
astonishment.
'Sir Huon of Bordeaux - he succeeded King Oberon. He had been a
bold knight once, but he was lost on the road to Babylon, a long while
back. Have you ever heard "How many miles to Babylon?"?'
'Of course,' said Dan, flushing.
'Well, Sir Huon was young when that song was new. But about tricks
on mortal babies. I said to Sir Huon in the fern here, on just such a

morning as this: "If you crave to act and influence on folk in housen,
which I know is your desire, why don't you take some human
cradle-babe by fair dealing, and bring him up among yourselves on the
far side of Cold Iron - as Oberon did in time past? Then you could
make him a splendid fortune, and