"Oh, well," Peter hastened to explain, "I shan't be here long. Only till my father comes to fetch me in a few days... I say! Can I go everywhere and explore all those barns? And is there a pony I could ride?"

They looked at each other apprehensively, but Peter went on:

"But what are your names?" They told her they were Henry and Humphrey. Henry was Grumpy and they were soon as friendly as she had hoped, but they would not show her the barns or give her permission to explore.

"Better ask Master," they said, or "Wait till Master be come," so Peter humoured them and followed them about their leisurely work and listened to their leisurely talk. After a little she asked them about the mountain towering above them, and whether all the stories she had heard of the Devil's Chair were true, but they pretended not to have heard and she did not ask again.

There was no sign of life yet from the big house except a promising plume of smoke from the kitchen chimney, so when Henry led the old mare over to one of the white gates she ran ahead and opened it for him. She turned to wave to Humphrey, and then said briefly, "Give me a leg up," and almost before the astonished Henry could answer was up on the old mare's back. And as they ambled down a cart track which led them to fields already blue-green with autumn-sown grain, her new friend began to tell her other stories of Shropshire.

She heard how Edric the Wild - or the Forester as some called him - a few years before the coming of William of Normandy was hunting in the wild mountainous country in the Forest of Clun. He became separated from his companions and, as dusk was falling, saw a mysterious light which led him to a strange building. The light was streaming from a window, and looking through, he saw "seven beautiful maids all robed in fairest white and dancing hand in hand." Instantly he fell in love with the youngest and most beautiful of the sisters and, rushing to the door, burst it open and seized her in his arms. Then the maid's six fair sisters changed into the fiercest beasts and attacked him with tooth and claw. With his precious burden held aloft Edric fought his way out and galloped away.

For three months the lovely and mysterious wife of the wild forester spoke no word until one day she opened her lips and wished him well and promised to be true to him for all time if he never reproached her for her sisters or spoke of the place from which he had snatched her away.