"But at last she said: 'Lo the day is waning, and thou hast two
things to do; either to go home to thy mistress at once, or flee
away from her by the way that I shall show thee; and if thou wilt
be ruled by me, and canst bear thy thralldom yet a little while thou
wilt not flee at once, but abide till thou hast seen me again.
And since it is here that thou hast met me, here mayst thou meet me again;
for the days are long now, and thou mayst easily win thy way hither
before noon on any day.'
"So I tied my goatskin shoes to my feet, and drave my
goats together, and we went up together out of the dale, and were
in the wide-spreading plain of the waste; and the carline said:
'Dost thou know the quarters of the heaven by the sun?'
'Yea,' said I. 'Then,' quoth she, 'whenso thou desirest to depart
and come into the world of folk that I have told thee of,
set thy face a little north of west, and thou shalt fall
in with something or somebody before long; but be speedy
on that day as thou art light-footed, and make all the way
thou canst before thy mistress comes to know of thy departure;
for not lightly will any one let loose such a thrall as thou.'
"I thanked her, and she went her ways over the waste, I wotted not whither,
and I drave my goats home as speedily as I might; the mistress meddled
not with me by word or deed, though I was short of my due tale of yarn.
The next day I longed sore to go to the dale and meet the carline but
durst not, and the next day I fared in likeways; but the third day I longed
so to go, that my feet must needs take me there, whatsoever might befall.
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