“Yea, surely I have,” said Ralph, nowise changing countenance. Said David: “Deemest thou aught of them? deemest thou that it may be true that a man may drink of the Well and recover his youth thereby?”
Ralph laughed and said: “Master, it is rather for me to ask thee hereof, than thou me, since thou dwellest so much nigher thereto than I have done heretofore.”
David drew up close to him, and said softly: “Nigher? Yea, but belike not so much nigher.”
“How meanest thou?” said Ralph.
Said David: “Is it so nigh that a man may leave home and come thereto in his life-time?”
“Yea,” said Ralph, “in my tales it is.”
Said the old man still softlier: “Had I deemed that true I had tried the adventure, whatever might lie beyond the mountains, but (and he sighed withal) I deem it untrue.”
Therewit
