noon
Sit down then , fair child , on this flowery grass , and I will sit beside thee and tell thee of many things worth thine heeding . ' So there we sat awhile , and in good sooth she told me much of the world which I had not yet seen , of its fairness and its foulness ; of life and death , and desire and disappointment , and despair ; so that when she had done , if I were wiser than erst , I was perchance little more joyous ; and yet I said to myself that come what would I would be a part of all that . `` 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 .