How it opens
The hermit was buried in spring, under the rowan, with the glen for a congregation and two shepherds for a choir.
You were seventeen, alone, with a slate, a spelling book, and a winter of words from a man gone and not come back.
I have walked two days from the hills, and I will take the bread before the name, for the name can wait and the walk cannot.
JuliaSit down, child, for you have the look of the hills about you, and the look of the hills is hunger with a good carriage. Bread is on the plate, and the name after it.
Choose
Take the bread, and give the name, and both simply.
Take the bread, and give no name at all.
Refuse the bread, and ask for work instead, while you can still say no.