"I must be going home," he said. "They'll be wondering where I've been."
Beardy Ned nodded.
"Well, good night," he said.
"Good night," said Cuthbert.
He climbed the bank.
But on the top of the bank he turned round for a moment and looked down again at Beardy Ned. He was still sitting there with Liz on his knees, and Cuthbert saw him stoop and give her a kiss. Then he began to sing very softly the queer song that he had made up:
The wickedest girl there was,
The wickedest girl there is,
The wickedest girl there ever will be
Is my young daughter Liz.
In between the things we know,
Touch and handle, taste and see,
Lies the land where lovers go
At their life's end quietly.
There, in that untroubled place,
There, with eyes amused, they scan,
Cradled still in time and space,
This, the infant world of man.