‘Your skin is soft under the coat, and warm, and you are a fair sight to see. Your mouth is sweet to taste and your hair is sweet, and under the cloak is sweet…’

‘A strong house that the wind couldn’t shake and the rain couldn’t beat into.’

‘I will slip your arms outen the cloak and fold it around you. And me and you will sleep wrapped in the cloak.’

‘And I will never leave you, Jasper, forever, but I will stay with you all my enduren life and I will work for you all my days.’

‘It’s sweet under the cloak…’

She began to dream. Jasper was in her own body and in her mind, was but more of herself. She sank slowly down to the stone and to the leaves lying upon the stone, and the great bulk of the rock arose to take her. Dolomite stones shut over her and she was folded deeply into the inner being of the rock and she was strong with a strength to hold up mountains. Far away, as if it were beyond the earth, she heard a dog bark, a strange voice, none she had ever heard before, and long after that the sour odour of a fox came up from below the cliff and a little step went off in the leaves. Then Jasper whispered something that was lost in the substance of her dream, but she remembered a little of the sweet odour of the fox and the barking of the dog, but after a while they were mingled with Jasper’s unheard whisper and went when she sank more deeply into the stone. After a while the stones were still again, and when she waked from sleeping daylight had come over the small valley that lay beyond the cliff. They walked down into the pasture and found a spring to drink from and then walked hand in hand across an old meadow, avoiding a house or a cabin, until they had gone far toward the south. The dust of the road was red and brown, hard crumbled dolomite, and the herbs were tall and slender, growing out of the red hard soil. They walked along the way for a time, but later they were taken into a wagon where they sat beside the driver and floated along with the rise and fall of the horses. The land was very still in the quiet of the early morning, and her dream held. Then they left the wagon at a road turning and walked again, passing through a lane, and so came to a house set near the road. The man who lived in the house said that he had a brother living not far away and that the morning was fine and that they were welcome. Inside the house three tall women moved about, and the things they set here and there made low rich sounds as they were placed, a cup or a plate on the table. The dream widened to take in three tall women who came and went. Then all of them left the room but one, and the door was closed, and Ellen was given a basin and a towel. She removed her dress and bathed, and later she tended her hair while the woman handed her the things as she needed them, and her dream widened again to take in the darkened room with its quiet and privacy and the fall of the water into the basin, Jasper not far away, outside the door with the men talking softly, the voices rising and falling. When she had pinned up her hair all the others came into the room, filing in quietly, and she and Jasper were set at a table where the food had been placed, the three women standing about to see that nothing was wanting, and one food after another was ceremoniously passed, bread and meat and sweet drips and coffee.