And so, for ever after the villages sent to the King, not an Eagle, but a Wren as tribute. And in no village ever after were the lands unplowed and the fields unsown, the cloth unspun and the coats not made, the roofs unthatched and the apple-trees unplanted. And in every village in the hollow and on the height the people shouted for the Wren--"The Wren, the Wren, the King of all Birds."
[Illustration]
[Illustration: Bloom-of-Youth and the Witch of the Elders]
Bloom-of-Youth and the Witch of the Elders
[Illustration]
Bloom-of-youth was a young, young girl. But, young as she was, she would have to be married, her step-mother said. Then married she was while she was still little enough to walk through the doorway of her step-mother's hut without stooping her head.
Her husband was a hun
