To Bil y Maker, Maestro Di Musica and My Good Friend
A View of Mossflower Country [map removed]
One day when our hearts were young, we went roving with right good wil , side by side two comrades to find what lay o’er the hil .
Our spirits never wearied then, in those high old times gone by.
What friends we made, what perils we faced, together you and I.
Now eyes grow dim, and paws feel stiff, even vittles don’t taste the same.
You wake one day, with your whiskers grey, what price then, medals an’ fame?
Alas, al we have are memories, to take out, dust off, and share.
But, oh, my friend, the pride we feel, just to know that we were there!
We travel ed an’ fought an’ feasted, we triumphed, we marched and songs were sung, we faced death, saw life and adventure!
One day when our hearts were young.
The Bal ad of Colonel Meliton Gubthorpe Digglethwaite (Retired)
BOOK ONE Travel Is An Adventure!
Wreathing slowly through the foliage of a white wil ow, smoke spiral ed into the warm summer noon. Below on the riverbank, two rats and a burly stoat squatted around the fire, roasting roots and wild turnips on sharpened sticks. Scraping away ashes and burnt soil, the stoat inspected his half-raw turnip. He spat sourly into the fire.
