'They are here,' the knight said, and he smiled at Dan with the string of trouts in his hand. 'There seems no great change in boys since mine fished this water.'
'If your horse has drunk, we shall be more at ease in the Ring,' said Puck; and he nodded to the children as though he had never magicked away their memories a week before.
The great horse turned and hoisted himself into the pasture with a kick and a scramble that tore the clods down rattling.
'Your pardon!' said Sir Richard to Dan. 'When these lands were mine, I never loved that mounted men should cross the brook except by the paved ford. But my Swallow here was thirsty, and I wished to meet you.'
'We're very glad you've come, sir,' said Dan. 'It doesn't matter in the least about the banks.'
He trotted across the pasture on the sword side of the mighty horse, and it was a mighty iron-handled sword that swung from Sir Richard's belt. Una walked behind with Puck. She remembered everything now.
'I'm sorry about the Leaves,' he said, 'but it would never have done if you had gone home and told, would it?'
'I s'pose not,' Una answered. 'But you said that all the fair—People of the Hills had left England.'
'So they have; but I told you that you should come and go and look and know, didn't I? The knight isn't a fairy. He's Sir Richard Dalyngridge, a very old friend of mine. He came over with William the Conqueror, and he wants to see you particularly.'