there to buy a horse and a cow. There were acrobats there, and dancers, and musicians, and card-sharpers, and pickpockets. There were tinkers there from every quarter, far and near, and they were very troublesome and noisy and impudent and ill-mannered and ill-spoken. They and their wives and children were always flying at each other's heads, till you would think they were going to murder each other, but for all that, they never did.
There were thimble-riggers there, but Shiana's thimble-man was not among them, or if he was, Shiana never caught sight of him.
A race was run, just as on the first day, and everybody watched it. When it was finished, everybody was running about and shouting, but Shiana did not run, nor did he shout.
No sooner was the race over than a fight arose between two tinkers about a donkey's halter. A tinker who was stronger than either of them sprang in between them, and put them apart and took the halter himself.
Just then Shiana heard the people round him whispering.
"Look! Look! Look!" they said. He looked in the same direction as they did. Whom should he see coming down the middle of the fair-green, while all the fair made way for them, but the pair—Sive and the strange gentleman!
Sive wore a scarlet gown, in which she blazed from top to toe. He was in a suit of broadcloth, looking very spick and span, clean-shaven, well set-up, well proportioned, well fed and strong and clear-skinned. Shiana could do nothing but stare at them when they came near him. It was the very
