“You are good to me, brother!”
The other answered, “I somehow owe it. And not to you only. But here only does it seem that I can pay.”
He took from pack loaf of bread, pound of cheese and a bottle of ale. “Here we be! Nay, I have had dinner. Well, I will eat a little to keep you in countenance, Master Dawn!”
They ate under the greenwood tree, close screened around with thorn and fern. “It will be cold to-night sleeping here. There is a loft at the farm. The old man and woman dodder and are blind and deaf. There is a straw bed. But strange and elfin were it, I think,” said Bettany slowly, “if you slept there.”
“In old years I have slept out colder nights than this is like to be. And a cell is cold.”
“Well, the cloak is thick. Nay, drink! I may have my fill when I get back to father’s house.”