that thou wert hungry and that I have seen thee eating, else
might I have deemed thee somewhat other than a woman of
mankind even yet."

She said: "Yea, and why wouldst thou not believe my word
thereto?"

He said, reddening: "I almost fear to tell thee, lest thou
think me overbold and be angry with me."

"Nay," she said, "tell me, for I would know."

Said he: "The words are not easy in my rude mouth; but this
is what I mean: that though I be young I have seen fair
women not a few, but beside any of them thou art a
wonder;....and loth I were if thou wert not really of
mankind, if it were but for the glory of the world."

She hung her head and answered nought a while, and he also
seemed ashamed: but presently she spake: "Thou hast been
kind to us, wouldst thou tell us thy name? and then, if it
like thee, what thou art?"

"Lady," he said, "my name is easy to tell, I hight
Christopher; and whiles folk in merry mockery call me
Christopher King; meseems because I am of the least account
of all carles. As for what else I am, a woodman I am, an
outlaw, and the friend of them: yet I tell thee I have
never by my will done any harm to any child of man; and
those friends of mine, who are outlaws also, are kind and