` The Beacon was always laid in those days ready to light , in case the French landed at Pevensey ; and I walked the horse about and about it that lee-long summer night . The farmer thought he was bewitched -- well , he was , of course -- and began to pray and shout . I did n't care ! I was as good a Christian as he any fair-day in the County , and about four o'clock in the morning a young novice came along from the monastery that used to stand on the top of Beacon Hill . ' ` What 's a novice ? ' said Dan . ` It really means a man who is beginning to be a monk , but in those days people sent their sons to a monastery just the same as a school . This young fellow had been to a monastery in France for a few months every year , and he was finishing his studies in the monastery close to his home here . Hugh was his name , and he had got up to go fishing hereabouts . His people owned all this valley . Hugh heard the farmer shouting , and asked him what in the world he meant . The old man spun him a wonderful tale about fairies and goblins and witches ; and I know he had n't seen a thing except rabbits and red deer all that night . -LRB- The People of the Hills are like otters -- they do n't show except when they choose . -RRB- But the novice was n't a fool . He looked down at the horse 's feet , and saw the new shoes fastened as only Weland knew how to fasten 'em . -LRB- Weland had a way of turning down the nails that folks called the Smith 's Clinch . -RRB- ' `` H 'm ! '' said the novice . `` Where did you get your horse shod ? '' ` The farmer would n't tell him at first , because the priests never liked their people to have any dealings with the Old Things .
At last he confessed that the XXXXX had done it .
Christian Dan Pevensey Smith Weland days fair-day morning night otters