William Morris

“ Yes, they were women: but it was long ago. Yet thou lookest no old man, said Osberne. I have seen old men; they be nought like to thee. Heed thou not that, said the helmed man: but tell me, how old a man art thou? ”

“ So on a certain day when March was wearing towards April he drave his sheep up over the crown of the bent; and there he went with them a way where, the land still rising, the ground was hard and rocky but clean, and the grass sweet for as scanty as it was, growing in little hollows and shelters round about the rocks. ”

“ So the man strode on and through the stream, and went his ways up the further bent, and Osberne sat down on a stone and abode him in no little wonder. The man was gone somewhat more than an hour, and then Osberne sees the sheep topping the crest of the bent and pouring down into the dale, and the newcomer came next driving them down; and when they came to the stream they stood there and moved no more than if they were penned. ”