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Updated: June 8, 2025
'Yea surely, said Face-of-god; 'fair are the water-meadows about it; great gain of cheese can be gotten thence. 'Hast thou been within the house? said the carle. 'Nay, said Gold-mane. Then spake Penny-thumb: 'Within is scant gear: we gather for others to scatter; we make meat for others' mouths.
Then said the Alderman: 'What wouldest thou, Penny-thumb, and thou, Bristler, son of Brightling?
Then he held his peace, and man spake to man, and a murmur arose, as they said for the more part that it was a fair and manly offer. But Bristler called his fellows and Penny-thumb to him, and they spake together; and sometimes Penny-thumb's shrill squeak was heard above the deep-voiced talk of the others; for he was a man that harboured malice.
Thereat was a stir amongst the Men of the Fleece of the Shepherds, and their ranks opened, and there came forth an ill-favoured lean old man, long-nebbed, blear-eyed, and bent, girt with a rusty old sword, but not otherwise armed. And all men knew Penny-thumb, who had been ransacked last autumn.
Then up stood Folk-might, and came forth into the field, and said: 'Bristler, son of Brightling, and ye other good men and true, it is but sooth that the ransackers and the slayer may soon be known; and here I declare them unto you: I it was and none other who slew Rusty; and I was the leader of those who ransacked Penny-thumb, and cowed Harts-bane of Greentofts.
Then Penny-thumb began to speak in a high squeaky voice: 'Alderman, and Lord of the Folk! But therewithal Bristle, pulled him back, and said: 'I am the man who hath taken this quarrel upon me, and have sworn upon the Holy Boar to carry this feud through; and we deem, Alderman, that if they who slew Rusty and ransacked Penny-thumb be not known now, yet they soon may be.
But Penny-thumb was afraid, and abode where he was; and Bristler laughed, and said: 'Take it, goodman, take it; spare not other men's goods as thou dost thine own. And Folk-might stood by, smiling faintly: so Penny-thumb plucked up a heart, and drew nigh trembling, and took what he durst from that heap; and all that stood by said that he had gotten a full double of what had been awarded to him.
Penny-thumb did but groan for all answer; but a stout carle who stood by with a broad grin on his face answered and said: 'Face-of-god, evil tidings be abroad; the strong-thieves of the wood are astir; and some deem that the wood-wights be helping them. 'Yea, and what is the deed they have done? said Gold-mane. Said the carle: 'Thou knowest Penny-thumb's abode?
Then the Elder of the Dale-wardens weighed out from the heap the blood- wite for Rusty, according to the due measure of the hundred in weed- stuff, and delivered it unto Bristler. And Folk-might said: 'Draw nigh now, Penny-thumb, and take what thou wilt of this gear, which I need not, and grudge not at me henceforward.
She said: 'These tidings have we heard before, and some deal of them we know better than ye do, or can; for we were the ransackers of Penny-thumb and Harts-bane. Thereof will I say more presently. What other tidings hast thou to tell of? What oaths were sworn upon the Boar last Yule? So he told her of the oath of Bristler the son of Brightling.
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