asked Felix . `` Is that a conundrum ? '' asked Cecily cautiously . `` If it is I wo n't try to guess the reason . I never can guess conundrums . '' `` It is n't a conundrum , '' said Felix . `` It 's a fact . They do -- and there 's a good reason for it . '' We stopped picking apples , sat down on the grass , and tried to reason it out -- with the exception of Dan , who declared that he knew there was a catch somewhere and he was n't going to be caught . The rest of us could not see where any catch could exist , since Felix solemnly vowed , ` cross his heart , white sheep did eat more than black . We argued over it seriously , but finally had to give it up . `` Well , what is the reason ? '' asked Felicity . `` Because there 's more of them , '' said Felix , grinning . I forget what we did to Felix . A shower came up in the evening and we had to stop picking . After the shower there was a magnificent double rainbow . We watched it from the granary window , and the Story Girl told us an old legend , culled from one of Aunt Olivia 's many scrapbooks . `` Long , long ago , in the Golden Age , when the gods used to visit the earth so often that it was nothing uncommon to see them , Odin made a pilgrimage over the world . Odin was the great god of the northland , you know .
And wherever he went among men he taught them love and brotherhood , and skilful arts ; and great cities sprang up where he had trodden , and every land through which he passed was blessed because one of the XXXXX had come down to men .
Long apples fact god gods northland pilgrimage reason rest sheep