than in the city? We would have to go only half
as far on our journeys north. Oh, say we can rent it! Please do!"
7 The Hawk was surprised to find the house was beautiful. The yard was
well kept. It had a large common room and eight sleeping rooms. Behind
the main house was two separate houses, for the servants.
8 "This will be our room!" insisted The Lady Hawk, "this big room, with
all the pretty windows!"
9 The Hawk sniffed. "There's been a fire in here," he muttered.
10 The servant showing them the house seemed to be nervous. The Hawk
touched the thick, earth-brick walls then turned and looked at the
servant. "Tell me what happened here," he demanded, "tell me true."
11 The man shrugged. "The young master of this house," he began, "lived
here for several years with his mates who he had known from childhood.
Then one day he went away on business, and to everyone's surprise,
returned home with a new mate. The woman was many years older than
himself, and by some strange power completely dominated him. His other
mates who he had dearly loved, he began to completely ignore.
12 Now, the young master's record keeper who had served the family for
many years, was curious of this woman. Who was she? Where had she come
from? By what power did she hold his master? So, he sent an agent to
the village where his master had met her, and, the agent learned that
the woman was a widow there ....that her husband had brought her from
another village three years before.
13 He had been a young man, full of life, but he took a strange
sickness a few months after his mating, and died but a few weeks before
the widow had married