THE KING OF ELFLAND’S DAUGHTER
And the troll went on gaily over the tips of the buttercups.
Presently he saw rising up all white over the flowers a fox that was facing him with his white chest and chin, and watching the troll as it went. The troll went near to him and took a look. And the fox went on watching him, for the fox watches all things.
He had come back lately to those dewy fields from slinking by night along the boundary of twilight that lies between here and Elfland. He even prowls inside the very boundary, walking amongst the twilight; and it is in the mystery of that heavy twilight that lies between here and there that there clings to him some of that glamour that he brings with him to our fields.
“Well, Noman’s Dog,” said the troll. For they know the fox in Elfland, from seeing him often go dimly along their borders; and this is the name they give him.
“Well, Thing-over-the-Border,” said the fox when he answered at all. For he knew troll-talk.
“Are the haunts of men near here?” said the troll.
The fox moved his whiskers by slightly wrinkling his lip. Like all liars he reflected before he spoke, and sometimes even let wise silences do better than speech.
“Men live here and men live there,” said the fox.
“I want their haunts,” said the troll.
“What for?” said the fox.
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