' WOOD MAGIC ' AND ' BEVIS ' 163 



continue to drink me. Come, dear, let us race again." So 

 the two went on and came to a hawthorn-bush, and Bevis, 

 full of mischief always, tried to slip away from the wind 

 round the bush, but the wind laughed and caught him. 



' A little farther and they came to the fosse of the old 

 camp. Bevis w^ent down into the trench, and he and the 

 wind raced round along it as fast as ever they could go, till 

 presently he ran up out of it on the hill, and there was the 

 waggon underneath him, with the load well piled up now. 

 There was the plain, yellow with stubble ; the hills beyond 

 it and the blue valley just the same as he had left it. 



' As Bevis stood and looked down, the wind caressed 

 him, and said : " Good-bye, darling, I am going yonder, 

 straight across to the blue valley and the blue sky, where 

 they meet ; but I shall be back again when you come next 

 time. Now remember, my dear, to drink me — come up 

 here and drink me." 



' " Shall you be here ?" said Bevis. " Are you quite 

 sure you will be here ?" 



' " Yes," said the wind, " I shall be quite certain to be 

 here ; I promise you, love, I will never go quite away. 

 Promise me faithfully, too, that you will come up and 

 drink me, and shout and race and be happy." 



' " I promise," said Bevis, beginning to go down the 

 hill ; " good-bye, jolly old Wind." 



' " Good-bye, dearest," whispered the wind, as he went 

 across out towards the valley. As Bevis went down the 

 hill, a blue harebell, who had been singing farewell to 

 summer all the morning, called to him and asked him to 

 gather her and carry her home, as she would rather go with 

 him than stay now autumn was near. 



' Bevis gathered the harebell, and ran with the flower 

 in his hand down the hill, and as he ran the wild thyme 

 kissed his feet, and said : " Come again, Bevis, come 

 again." At the bottom of the hill the w^aggon was loaded 

 now ; so they lifted him up, and he rode home on the 

 broad back of the leader.'* 



* IVood Magic. 



II — 2 



