There, they formed themselves into a fleet, and
sailed majestically away.
Thus Giles became the servant of the Shepherd of Clouds. It was his task
to unbar the door when the Shepherd had prepared the weather; it was his
to lock the clouds in, once they had returned from the heavens in answer
to the Shepherd's summoning horn. In time he came to know the
rain-clouds from their fair-weather brothers; he learned how frosts were
sent forth; how fogs were made; and he was even allowed to prepare a
small storm. He saw the icy caverns in which the hail-stones lie piled
in monstrous bags, the lightning-bolts in their crystal jars, and even
the prisoned storm-winds. You may be sure that, when he could so arrange
it, Phyllida's garden had quite the finest variety of weather. For Eye-o
and Ear-o would tell him about her.
"Tell me, what is Phyllida doing?" Giles would say again and again.
And Eye-o would answer, "She is out in the garden gathering plums"; or,
"she is in the kitchen making gingerbread."
And then Giles would say to Ear-o, "Tell me, what is Phyllida saying?"
And Ear-o would answer, "'Oh, would that my lad were home!'"
Two years passed, and Giles, who had found no opportunity of escape,
began to lose hope of doing so.
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