THE KING OF ELFLAND’S DAUGHTER
“And some day I will go a long way over the hills and hunt stranger things,” said the boy.
“What kind of things,” asked Alveric. But the boy did not know.
His father suggested different kinds of beasts.
“No, stranger than them,” said Orion. “Stranger even than bears.”
“But what will they be?” asked his father.
“Magic things,” said the boy.
But the horses moved restlessly down below in the cold, so that there was no time for more idle talk, and Alveric said farewell to the witch and his son and strode away thinking little of the future, for all was too vague for thought.
Alveric mounted his horse over the heaps of provisions, and all the band of six men rode away. The villagers stood in the street to see them go. All knew their curious quest; and when all had saluted Alveric and all had called their farewells to the last of the riders, a hum of talk arose. And in the talk was contempt of Alveric’s quest, and pity, and ridicule; and sometimes affection spoke and sometimes scorn; yet in the hearts of all there was envy; for their reason mocked the lonely roving of that outlandish adventure, but their hearts would have gone.
And away rode Alveric out of the village of Erl with his company of adventurers behind him; a moonstruck man, a madman, a lovesick lad, a shepherd
119
