Rewards and Fairies

‘‘Ere he be – house an’ all!’ Hobden dived into the prickly heart of the faggot and took out a dormouse’s wonderfully woven nest of grass and leaves. His blunt fingers parted it as if it had been precious lace, and tilting it toward the last of the light he showed the little, red, furry chap curled up inside, his tail between his eyes that were shut for their winter sleep.

‘Let’s take him home. Don’t breathe on him,’ said Una. ‘It’ll make him warm and he’ll wake up and die straight off. Won’t he, Hobby?’

‘That’s a heap better by my reckonin’ than wakin’ up and findin’ himself in a cage for life. No! We’ll lay him into the bottom o’ this hedge. Dat’s jus’ right! No more trouble for him till come Spring. An’ now we’ll go home.’

A CAROL

Our Lord Who did the Ox command
To kneel to Judah’s King,
He binds His frost upon the land
To ripen it for Spring —
To ripen it for Spring, good sirs,
According to His word;
Which well must be as ye can see —
And who shall judge the Lord?

When we poor fenmen skate the ice
Or shiver on the wold,
We hear the cry of a single tree
That breaks her heart in the cold —
That breaks her heart in the cold, good sirs,
And rendeth by the board;
Which well must be as ye can see —
And who shall judge the Lord?

Her wood is crazed and little worth
Excepting as to burn,
That we may warm and make our mirth
Until the Spring return —
Until the Spring return, good sirs,
When people walk abroad;
Which well must be as ye can see —
And who shall judge the Lord?

God bless the master of this house,
And all that sleep therein!
And guard the fens from pirate folk,
And keep us all from sin,
To walk in honesty, good sirs,
Of thought and deed and word!
Which shall befriend our latter end —
And who shall judge the Lord?

THE END

notes

1

See ‘The Winged Hats’ in Puck of Pook’s Hill.

2

See ‘Weland’s Sword’ in Puck of Pook’s Hill.

3

See ‘Hal o’ the Draft’ in Puck of Pook’s Hill.

4

Earl Godwin of the Goodwin Sands (?).

5

See ‘Dymchurch Flit’ in Puck of Pook’s Hill.

6

The old lady’s prophecy is in a fair way to come true, for when the Panama Canal is finished, one end of it will open into the very bay where Sir Francis Drake was buried. Then ships will be taken through the Canal, and the road round Cape Horn which Sir Francis opened will be abandoned.

7

This is the Norman knight they met the year before in Puck of Pook’s Hill. See ‘Young Men at the Manor,’ ‘The Knights of the Joyous Venture,’ and ‘Old Men at Pevensey,’ in that book.

8

See ‘Old Men at Pevensey’ in Puck of Pook’s Hill.

9

See ‘The Knights of the Joyous Venture,’ in Puck of Pook’s Hill.