said Dan . ` Going out hunting in the Pict country with a tame Pict . You are quite safe so long as you are his guest , and wear a sprig of heather where it can be seen . If you went alone you would surely be killed , if you were not smothered first in the bogs . Only the Picts know their way about those black and hidden bogs . Old Allo , the one-eyed , withered little Pict from whom we bought our ponies , was our special friend . At first we went only to escape from the terrible town , and to talk together about our homes . Then he showed us how to hunt wolves and those great red deer with horns like Jewish candlesticks . The Roman-born officers rather looked down on us for doing this , but we preferred the heather to their amusements . Believe me , ' Parnesius turned again to Dan , ' a boy is safe from all things that really harm when he is astride a pony or after a deer . Do you remember , O Faun , ' -- he turned to Puck -- ` the little altar I built to the Sylvan Pan by the pine-forest beyond the brook ? ' ` Which ? The stone one with the line from Xenophon ? ' said Puck , in quite a new voice . ` No ! What do I know of Xenophon ? That was Pertinax -- after he had shot his first mountain-hare with an arrow -- by chance ! Mine I made of round pebbles , in memory of my first bear . It took me one happy day to build . ' Parnesius faced the children quickly .
` And that was how we lived on the Wall for two years -- a little scuffling with the XXXXX , and a great deal of hunting with old Allo in the Pict country .
Pan Parnesius Picts Puck Roman-born Xenophon bogs candlesticks escape pine-forest