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Show " . . . a n d describe our utmost need of help with this murrain " Assuredly, she thought with satisfaction, 'tis true as the little one said, the fools in the BauerNetwork cannot read, either. By autumn the fields in the Northern Kingdom had had enough rain to at least raise the harvest and the stunted fields waved with the sparsest crop the Kingdom had seen since its settlement generations before. "Aye, my liege," said Jothra's old HeadCottager, gesturing to the fields, "among the elders in my village 'tis said there was ne'er such a drought as this one just past. We are blessed to have e'en such a crop." Jothra, dressed in a simple RoughSpun tunic of faded purple, stood beside the old man and looked gloomily upon the stunted grain. "'Twill keep us alive 'til the spring, mayhap..-" he began. "Aye, and my lord," interrupted the old man, "look ye at my team." He gestured then at a quartet of workhorses pulling a cart of water buckets, filled that morning at a mountain stream. Jothra nodded. '"Tis gone from them is it?" he said, referring to the hoofworm that had all four crippled for half a TwelveMonth. "But they look passing scrawny, still." • "'Twill all come to right by spring greenup, my liege. Fret y'rself not." But Jothra's spirits were low enough to be lifted but little at this small ray of sunshine. Moreover, his morning was ruined outright when, upon reaching the drawbridge of his castle-he had gone out to the fields by foot to spare his limping horses-he found the Seljuk Lusela and Zud 308 |
