Pook 's Hill -- Puck 's Hill -- Puck 's Hill -- Pook 's Hill ! It 's as plain as the nose on my face . ' He pointed to the bare , fern-covered slope of Pook 's Hill that runs up from the far side of the mill-stream to a dark wood . Beyond that wood the ground rises and rises for five hundred feet , till at last you climb out on the bare top of Beacon Hill , to look over the Pevensey Levels and the Channel and half the naked South Downs . ` By Oak , Ash , and Thorn ! ' he cried , still laughing . ` If this had happened a few hundred years ago you 'd have had all the People of the Hills out like bees in June ! ' ` We did n't know it was wrong , ' said Dan . ` Wrong ! ' The little fellow shook with laughter . ` Indeed , it is n't wrong . You 've done something that Kings and Knights and Scholars in old days would have given their crowns and spurs and books to find out . If Merlin himself had helped you , you could n't have managed better ! You 've broken the Hills -- you 've broken the Hills ! It has n't happened in a thousand years . ' ` We -- we did n't mean to , ' said Una . ` Of course you did n't ! That 's just why you did it . Unluckily the Hills are empty now , and all the People of the Hills are gone . I 'm the only one left .
I 'm XXXXX , the oldest Old Thing in England , very much at your service if -- if you care to have anything to do with me .
Ash Dan Hill Hills Merlin Pevensey Pook Puck Thorn Una