e table for the feast, and Gudrid served the guests with
the other girls of the house. Thorberg sat by Heriolf, and said very
little, which was all to the good, since it made men treasure what she
did say, and find more in it than may have been there. Then, when the
tables had been cleared, Heriolf stood up and asked her if she had been
well-treated. Thorberg said, "You have given me your best, Franklin.
No one can look for more."

"Would it please you, then, to reveal certain things to the company?"

She stared before her. "What do you desire to know?"

"Why," said Heriolf, "we should like to know how it stands with this
house, and with those who are in it, and those who are of it; and how
long these plagues of sickness and death are to oppress us; and other
things which you may read out of the dark, and be moved to tell us."

She thought for a while, looking down the hall above the heads of those
who stood to hear her. Just below the dais Gudrid was standing with
the house-girls.

After a time Thorberg said, "Set me the spell-seat," and remained
abstracted while it was being done.

Heriolf set up the spell-seat, and then Thorberg opened her pouch of
magic and took out certain small flat stones covered with writing, and
some tufts of feathers, a lump of brown amber, a ring of jet, and some
teeth of a great sea-beast. All these she laid round the seat in a
circle, except the ring of jet, which she kept in her hand. Then she
sat upon the spell-seat, and said to Heriolf, "Bring me the woman who
is to sing the Ward-locks." Those were the charms which had to be
sung, not so much to invoke the spirits with whom she was familiar as
to keep away those who were adverse.

Every man looked at his neighbour; the women whispered together, but
all shook their heads. In and out among his guests Heriolf ran in a
great taking. "Heard any one the like of this, that I should think of
everything, and fail for one?" But nobody knew the songs. In his
naked bed behind the wall lay old Thorbeorn with the blanket up to his
nose, and jerked his thin legs, losing not one tittle of all this.

Presently, with Heriolf hot and flustered and at his wits' end, with
women scouring the kitchen and the bower to find some one not counted
yet, Gudrid turned round about to face the Wise Woman. She was pale,
but her eyes were bright. "Whisht now," Thorberg cried in her deep
tones; "heed the fair girl." The hush then was dreadful, but G