Great joy they made together, and the wardens set meat and drink before the guests, and they ate and drank and were of good cheer.  But the elder who had brought them from Chestnut-dale said:  “Dear friends, I have told you that these two young men are my grand-children, and they are the sons of this man and woman whom ye see; for the man is my son.  And so it is, that amongst us the care of the Quest of the Well at the World’s End hath for long been the heritage of our blood, going with us from father to son.  Therefore is it naught wonderful, though I have been sundry times at this house, and have learned about the place all that may be learned.  For my father brought me hither when I was yet a boy; that time it was that I saw the last man of whom we know for sure that he drank of the Water of the Well, and he was that old hoar man like unto me, but, as I said, far weaker in all wise; but when he came back to us from the Well he was strong and stalwart, and a better man than I am now; and I heard him tell his name to my father, that he was called the Sage of Swevenham.”

Ralph looked on Ursula and said:  “Yea, father, and it was through him that we had our lore concerning the way hither; and it was he that bade us abide your coming in the rock-house of the Vale of Sweet-chestnuts.”

“Then he is alive still,” said the elder.  Said Ralph:  “Yea, and as fair and strong an old man as ye may lightly see.”  “Yea, yea,” said the elder, “and yet fifty years ago his course seemed run.”

Then said Ralph:  “Tell me, father, have none of your own folk sought to the Well at the World’s End?” “Nay, none,” said the elder.  Said Ralph:  “That is strange, whereas ye are so nigh thereto, and have such abundant lore concerning the way.”

“Son,” said the elder, “true it is that the water of that Well shall cause a man to thrive in all ways, and to live through many generations of men, maybe, in honour and good-liking; but it may not keep any man alive for ever; for so have the Gods given us the gift of death lest we weary of life.  Now our folk live well and hale, and without the sickness and pestilence, such as I have heard oft befall folk in other lands:  even as I heard the Sage of Swevenham say, and I wondered at his words.  Of strife and of war also we know naught:  nor do we desire aught which we may not easily attain to.  Therefore we live long, and we fear the Gods if we should strive to live longer, lest they should bring upon us war and sickness, and over-weening desire, and weariness of life.  Moreover it is little that all of us should seek to the Well at the World’s End; and those few that sought and drank should be stronger and wiser than the others, and should make themselves earthly gods, and, maybe, should torment the others of us and make their lives a very burden to be borne.  Of such matters are there tales current amongst us that so it hath been of yore and in other lands; and ill it were if such times came back upon us.”