After Hallblithe had been housed a little while, and the time was again drawing nigh to the twelfth moon since he had come to the Glittering Plain, he went in the wood one day; and, pondering many things without fixing on any one, he stood before a very great oak-tree and looked at the tall straight bole thereof, and there came into his head the words of an old song which was written round a scroll of the carving over the shut-bed, wherein he was wont to lie when he was at home in the House of the Raven: and thus it said:  
    I am the oak-tree, and forsooth
    Men deal by me with little ruth;
    My boughs they shred, my life they slay,
    And speed me o’er the watery way.
 
He looked up into that leafy world for a little and then turned back toward his house; but all day long, whether he were at work or at rest, that posy ran in his head, and he kept on saying it over, aloud or not aloud, till the day was done and he went to sleep.
 
Then in his sleep he dreamed that an exceeding fair woman stood by his bedside, and at first she seemed to him to be an image of the Hostage.  But presently her face changed, and her body and her raiment; and, lo! it was the lovely woman, the King’s daughter whom he had seen wasting her heart for the love of him.  Then even in his dream shame thereof overtook him, and because of that shame he awoke, and lay awake a little, hearkening the wind going through the woodland boughs, and the singing of the owl who had her dwelling in the hollow oak nigh to his house.  Slumber overcame him in a little while, and again the image of the King’s daughter came to him in his dream, and again when he looked upon her, shame and pity rose so hotly in his heart that he awoke weeping, and lay a while hearkening to the noises of the night.  The third time he slept and dreamed; and once more that image came to him.  And now he looked, and saw that she had in her hand a book covered outside with gold and gems, even as he saw it in the orchard-close aforetime: and he beheld her face that it was no longer the face of one sick with sorrow; but glad and clear, and most beauteous.
 
Now she opened the book and held it before Hallblithe and turned the leaves so that he might see them clearly; and therein were woods and castles painted, and burning mountains, and the wall of the world, and kings upon their thrones, and fair women and warriors, all most lovely to behold, even as he had seen it aforetime in the orchard when he lay lurking amidst the leaves of the bay-tree.
 
So at last she came to the place in the book wherein was painted Hallblithe’s own image over against the image of the Hostage; and he looked thereon and longed.  But she turned the leaf, and, lo! on one side the Hostage again, standing in a fair garden of the spring with the lilies all about her feet, and behind her the walls of a house, grey, ancient, and lovely: and on the other leaf over against her was painted a sea rippled by a little wind and a boat thereon sailing swiftly, and one man alone in the boat sitting and steering with a cheerful countenance; and he, who but Hallblithe himself.  Hallblithe looked thereon for a while and then the King’s daughter shut the book, and the dream flowed into other imaginings of no import.
 
In the grey dawn Hallblithe awoke, and called to mind his dream, and he leapt from his bed and washed the night from off him in the stream, and clad himself and went the shortest way through the wood to that House of folk aforesaid: and as he went his face was bright and he sang the second part of the carven posy; to wit:
 
    Along the grass I lie forlorn
    That when a while of time is worn,
    I may be filled with war and peace
    And bridge the sundering of the seas.
 
He came out of the wood and hastened over the flowery meads of the Glittering Plain, and came to that same house when it was yet very early.  At the door he came across a damsel bearing water from the well, and she spake to him and said: “Welcome, Wood-lover!  Seldom art thou seen in our garth; and that is a pity of thee.  And now I look on thy face I see that gladness hath come into thine heart, and that thou art most fair and lovely.  Here then is a token for thee of the increase of gladness.”  Therewith she set her buckets on the earth, and stood before him, and took him by the ears, and drew down his face to hers and kissed him sweetly.  He smiled on her and said: “I thank thee, sister, for the kiss and the greeting; but I come here having a lack.”
 
“Tell us,” she said, “that we may do thee a pleasure.”
 
He said: “I would ask the folk to give me timber, both beams and battens and boards; for if I hew in the wood it will take long to season.”
 
“All this is free for thee to take from our wood-store when thou hast broken thy fast with us,” said the damsel.  “Come thou in and rest thee.”
 
She took him by the hand and they went in together, and she gave him to eat and drink, and went up and down the house, saying to every one: “Here is come the Wood-lover, and he is glad again; come and see him.”
 
So the folk gathered about him, and made much of him.  And when they had made an end of breakfast, the head man of the House said to him: “The beasts are in the wain, and the timber abideth thy choosing; come and see.”
 
So he brought Hallblithe to the timber-bower, where he chose for himself all that he needed of oak-timber of the best; and they loaded the wain therewith, and gave him what he would moreover of nails and treenails and other matters; and he thanked them; and they said to him: “Whither now shall we lead thy timber?”
 
“Down to the sea-side,” quoth he, “nighest to my dwelling.”
 
So did they, and more than a score, men and women, went with him, some in the wain, and some afoot.  Thus they came down to the sea-shore, and laid the timber on the strand just above high-water mark; and straightway Hallblithe fell to work shaping him a boat, for well he knew the whole craft thereof; and the folk looked on wondering, till the tide had ebbed the little it was wont to ebb, and left the moist sand firm and smooth; then the women left watching Hallblithe&rsquo............