it to come home. When the men
returned late in the evening he saw at once that a man was missing, and
a man, too, of whom he was very fond. His name was Dirk, and he came
from the south--that is, from beyond the Baltic Sea, from some distant
part of Germany which no Icelander had seen. Eric Red had found him in
his younger days in Bremen and shipped him for a voyage. Dirk had made
himself useful, and desired to remain in Iceland. When it became
necessary for Eric to leave home, Dirk went with him to Greenland. So
it was that Leif had known him since he was a boy, and that there was
much love between them. Dirk was as ugly a man as there could well be
in the world, short, bandy and mis-shapen, with a small flat face, high
forehead, little eyes, no nose to speak of; but yet he was active and
clever with his hands and feet. The men told Leif that they had not
missed him before the call had gone about to assemble for the return.
They had looked all ways for him--but no Dirk. They had called--no
answer. There was nothing for it, since it was growing dark, but to go
home.

Leif was troubled. "You are good men all," he said, "and yet I will
tell you that I would rather have missed any two of you than Dirk. I
have known him all my life, and grown up, as you may say, between his
knees. It shall go hard with me but I find him before another sunset."
With that they took their meal, and turned in for the night, all but
Leif. He had Dirk in his mind and no way of thinking of sleep.
Instead, he wandered up the shore of the lake in the moonlight, and
presently was aware of a whooping sound among the trees, as it might be
of a coursing owl. As he listened, it seemed to waver from place to
place, now high, now low; and then in the pause he heard something like
a chuckling noise; and then last of all a great guffaw. "There is
Dirk, as I live," he said to himself, and plunged into the woodland to
find him. He had not far to go. Some bowshot within the forest, in a
glade, he saw Dirk plainly under the moon, dancing and waving his arms,
curtseying to his own shadow.

"Ho, Dirk!" he cried out sharply, and Dirk stopped short and looked
about him. Leif watched him.

Dirk stared into the dark, then shook his head. "I made sure somebody
called Dirk," he said, and then--"But I don't care," and fell to his
dancing and whooping again.

Leif stepped into the moonlight, and Dirk saw him, but without ceasing
to caper. "Danci