Rewards and Fairies | Page 8

'"Robin," said he, while I was trying to clean him down with a bunch of
hay, "I don't quite understand folk in housen. I went to help that old
woman, and she hit me, Robin!"
'"What else did you expect?" I said. "That was the one time when you
might have worked one of your charms, instead of running into three
times your weight."
'"I didn't think," he says. "But I caught the man one on the head that
was as good as any charm. Did you see it work, Robin?"
'"Mind your nose," I said. "Bleed it on a dockleaf - not your sleeve, for
pity's sake." I knew what the Lady Esclairmonde would say.
'He didn't care. He was as happy as a gipsy with a stolen pony, and the
front part of his gold coat, all blood and grass stains, looked like
ancient sacrifices.

'Of course the People of the Hills laid the blame on me. The Boy could
do nothing wrong, in their eyes.
'"You are bringing him up to act and influence on folk in housen, when
you're ready to let him go," I said. "Now he's begun to do it, why do
you cry shame on me? That's no shame. It's his nature drawing him to
his kind.
'"But we don't want him to begin that way," the Lady Esclairmonde
said. "We intend a splendid fortune for him - not your flitter-by-night,
hedge-jumping, gipsy-work."
'"I don't blame you, Robin," says Sir Huon, "but I do think you might
look after the Boy more closely."
'"I've kept him away from Cold Iron these sixteen years ," I said. "You
know as well as I do, the first time he touches Cold Iron he'll find his
own fortune, in spite of everything you intend for him. You owe me
something for that."
'Sir Huon, having been a man, was going to allow me the right of it, but
the Lady Esclairmonde, being the Mother of all Mothers,
over-persuaded him.
'"We're very grateful," Sir Huon said, "but we think that just for the
present you are about too much with him on the Hill."
'"Though you have said it," I said, "I will give you a second chance." I
did not like being called to account for my doings on my own Hill. I
wouldn't have stood it even that far except I loved the Boy.
'"No! No!" says the Lady Esclairmonde. "He's never any trouble when
he's left to me and himself. It's your fault."
'"You have said it," I answered. "Hear me! From now on till the Boy
has found his fortune, whatever that may be, I vow to you all on my
Hill, by Oak, and Ash, and Thorn, and by the Hammer of Asa Thor" -
again Puck made that curious double- cut in the air - '"that you may
leave me out of all your counts and reckonings." Then I went out'- he
snapped his fingers -'like the puff of a candle, and though they called
and cried, they made nothing by it. I didn't promise not to keep an eye
on the Boy, though. I watched him close - close - close!
'When he found what his people had forced me to do, he gave them a
piece of his mind, but they all kissed and cried round him, and being
only a boy, he came over to their way of thinking (I don't blame him),
and called himself unkind and ungrateful; and it all ended in fresh

shows and plays, and magics to distract him from folk in housen. Dear
heart alive! How he used to call and call on me, and I couldn't answer,
or even let him know that I was near!'
'Not even once?' said Una. 'If he was very lonely?' 'No, he couldn't,'
said Dan, who had been thinking. 'Didn't you swear by the Hammer of
Thor that you wouldn't, Puck?'
'By that Hammer!' was the deep rumbled reply. Then he came back to
his soft speaking voice. 'And the Boy was lonely, when he couldn't see
me any more. He began to try to learn all learning (he had good
teachers), but I saw him lift his eyes from the big black books towards
folk in housen all the time. He studied song- making (good teachers he
had too!), but he sang those songs with his back toward the Hill, and
his face toward folk. I know! I have sat and grieved over him grieving
within a rabbit's jump of him. Then he studied the High, Low, and
Middle Magic. He had promised the Lady Esclairmonde he would
never go near folk in housen; so he had to make shows and shadows for
his mind to chew on.' 'What sort of shows?' said Dan.
'Just boy's Magic