"Sir," he said, very courteously but without any servility, "I see you are a stranger, and you meet me on a strange errand. I am the priest whom they call the hermit, Leofwine—should I name you thane?"
I was going to answer him as I would have replied but yesterday morning—so hesitated a little, and then answered shortly.
"No thane, Father, but the next thing to it—a masterless man."
"As you will, sir," he replied, thinking that I doubtless had my own reason for withholding whatever rank I had. "We meet few strangers in this wild."
"I lost my way, Father," I said, "and wandered here in the night, and, being sorely weary, slept in this empty hut till two hours ago, waking to find yon child here."
Now little Turkil, seeing that I looked towards him, got free from his mother and ran to m
