and in several of the houses were old fungus-eaten chairs and

tables--rough, barbaric, clumsy furniture, it seemed to them, and made

of wood. They repeated many of the things they had said on the previous

day, and towards evening they found another flower, a harebell. In the

late afternoon some Company shepherds went down the river valley riding

on a big multicycle; but they hid from them, because their presence,

Elizabeth said, seemed to spoil the romance of this old-world place

altogether.

In this fashion they lived a week. For all that week the days were

cloudless, and the nights nights of starry glory, that were invaded each

a little more by a crescent moon.

Yet something of the first splendour of their coming faded--faded

imperceptibly day after day; Denton's eloquence became fitful, and

lacked fresh topics of inspiration; the fatigue of their long march from

London told in a certain stiffness of the limbs, and each suffered from

a slight unaccountable cold. Moreover, Denton became aware of unoccupied

time. In one place among the carelessly heaped lumber of the old times

he found a rust-eaten spade, and with this he made a fitful attack on

the razed and grass-grown garden--though he had nothing to plant or sow.

He returned to Elizabeth with a sweat-streaming face, after half an hour

of such work.

There were giants in those days," he said, not understanding what wont

and training will do. And their walk that day led them along the hills

Tales of Space and Time-1