g--but maybe we shall not come back."

She looked at him fondly. "I will go wherever you bid me. But we
shall come back." It is wonderful that she did not remember what had
been predicted of her; but she did not.

Thorstan did not meet her eyes. "We will go, then. But not till after
harvest."

"Harvest!" said she. "You will not go in the winter?"

"No, no," he said. "The harvest will not be done." Then she knew that
he did not speak of the corn-harvest, but of their own.

The year sped quickly, as happy years will do; the harvest of the earth
was gathered, the winter fell, the clinging mists, the still and deadly
cold. But they were a happy household at Brattalithe, for Gudrid was
found to be a solvent of much domestic ferment. Her sweet manners drew
even Theodhild to come in and out of the house, and hushed the storms
which periodically swept over Freydis the Wild. At Yule there was a
feast of many days, singing, eating and drinking, and games in the snow
for the young men. Gudrid sat apart and watched it, Thorstan never far
away from her. Still she didn't guess what lent such fervour to their
loves. Foolish with happiness, she thought it was the first of many
Yules--whether here in this frost-locked country or in the forests of
Wineland mattered little to her. She saw them all in years to come as
they were now and felt her heart high in her breast.

And then at the end of March, when men began to talk again of the ice
breaking up, and the thawing of the passages, her child was born. It
was a girl, and christened Walgerd. And now Thorstan looked about him
at the still sheeted lands and knew that his hour was at hand. He told
nobody, he never betrayed himself; but went to work silently and
methodically.

XIX

It was the end of summer again before they were ready to sail. The
ship which brought home Thorwald's crew had gone a voyage to Iceland
and not come back. It was necessary to find and furnish another; no
crew would ship until the harvest was over; and though Gudrid was
willing to follow Thorstan at a word, Eric had not wanted her to leave
him yet; so she saw one more high summer.

They fared badly from the start, with heavy weather as soon as they
were off the land. After a week of blustering south-west gales and
rain the wind went round to the north. Then from the N.N.W. there
began a storm the like of which none of them had ever known, and for
week after week they were bur