Rewards and Fairies | Page 8

the blame on me. The Boy could do nothing wrong, in their eyes.
'"You are bringing him up to act and influence on folk in housen, when you're ready to let him go," I said. "Now he's begun to do it, why do you cry shame on me? That's no shame. It's his nature drawing him to his kind.
'"But we don't want him to begin that way," the Lady Esclairmonde said. "We intend a splendid fortune for him - not your flitter-by-night, hedge-jumping, gipsy-work."
'"I don't blame you, Robin," says Sir Huon, "but I do think you might look after the Boy more closely."
'"I've kept him away from Cold Iron these sixteen years ," I said. "You know as well as I do, the first time he touches Cold Iron he'll find his own fortune, in spite of everything you intend for him. You owe me something for that."
'Sir Huon, having been a man, was going to allow me the right of it, but the Lady Esclairmonde, being the Mother of all Mothers, over-persuaded him.
'"We're very grateful," Sir Huon said, "but we think that just for the present you are about too much with him on the Hill."
'"Though you have said it," I said, "I will give you a second chance." I did not like being called to account for my doings on my own Hill. I wouldn't have stood it even that far except I loved the Boy.
'"No! No!" says the Lady Esclairmonde. "He's never any trouble when he's left to me and himself. It's your fault."
'"You have said it," I answered. "Hear me! From now on till the Boy has found his fortune, whatever that may be, I vow to you all on my Hill, by Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, and by the Hammer of Asa Thor" - again Puck made that curious double- cut in the air - '"that you may leave me out of all your counts and reckonings." Then I went out'- he snapped his fingers -'like the puff of a candle, and though they called and cried, they made nothing by it. I didn't promise not to keep an eye on the Boy, though. I watched him close - close - close!
'When he found what his people had forced me to do, he gave them a piece of his mind, but they all kissed and cried round him, and being only a boy, he came over to their way of thinking (I don't blame him), and called himself unkind and ungrateful; and it all ended in fresh shows and plays, and magics to distract him from folk in housen. Dear heart alive! How he used to call and call on me, and I couldn't answer, or even let him know that I was near!'
'Not even once?' said Una. 'If he was very lonely?' 'No, he couldn't,' said Dan, who had been thinking. 'Didn't you swear by the Hammer of Thor that you wouldn't, Puck?'
'By that Hammer!' was the deep rumbled reply. Then he came back to his soft speaking voice. 'And the Boy was lonely, when he couldn't see me any more. He began to try to learn all learning (he had good teachers), but I saw him lift his eyes from the big black books towards folk in housen all the time. He studied song- making (good teachers he had too!), but he sang those songs with his back toward the Hill, and his face toward folk. I know! I have sat and grieved over him grieving within a rabbit's jump of him. Then he studied the High, Low, and Middle Magic. He had promised the Lady Esclairmonde he would never go near folk in housen; so he had to make shows and shadows for his mind to chew on.' 'What sort of shows?' said Dan.
'Just boy's Magic as we say. I'll show you some, some time. It pleased him for the while, and it didn't hurt any one in particular except a few men coming home late from the taverns. But I knew what it was a sign of, and I followed him like a weasel follows a rabbit. As good a boy as ever lived! I've seen him with Sir Huon and the Lady Esclairmonde stepping just as they stepped to avoid the track of Cold Iron in a furrow, or walking wide of some old ash-tot because a man had left his swop-hook or spade there; and all his heart aching to go straightforward among folk in housen all the time. Oh, a good boy! They always intended a fine fortune for him - but they could never find it in their heart to let him begin. I've heard that many warned them, but they wouldn't be warned. So it happened as it happened.
'One hot night I saw the Boy roving