t a church in Ericshaven
and found a priest to serve it; and now she lived in a small house hard
by and practised austerities. She was a very stately woman, and held
in great estimation all over the settled country. Eric Red was uneasy
with her, because he believed that she scorned him; but her sons used
to go to see her. She had quarrelled with Freydis irrevocably, and if
she met her anywhere would never take any notice.

Thorbeorn was made welcome at Brattalithe and great attention shown to
his fair daughter. Women were scarce in Greenland. Eric's two sons,
Thorstan and Thorwald, immediately wanted her; but Thorstan was the
elder and stronger, and soon came to terms with Thorwald. "My mind,"
he said, "is set upon Gudrid, and I am older than you by a good deal.
I advise you to be my friend in the affair, otherwise no one knows how
it may turn out." Thorwald said that that was fair enough: "But I
advise you to be sharp about it." "Why so?" said Thorstan. Thorwald
told him that he would be only one of many. He named one or two, and
Thorstan frowned. Thorstan was a very honest man; he was a good poet
and a great man for dreams, but slow and heavy minded. "A man must not
be driven in such a matter," he said. "A man should not need it,"
Thorwald replied. "As you have spoken to me, so do you speak to
Gudrid's old iron father. Hammer him smartly; knock sparks out of him.
If you do not, some one else will, and I shall have wasted benevolence
upon you. If you are not to be the lucky man, why am I to be thrown
aside?"

This was in the very early days, before Thorbeorn had taken up lands in
the Settlement. He was all that summer the guest of Eric at
Brattalithe, and there was a great deal to do. Eric and Thorbeorn rode
about the country, talking of this land and that. Gudrid fell into the
ways of the house and made herself useful. She was taken to see
Theodhild, and became friends with the stern, lonely woman. Theodhild
spent much of her time in the little dark church she had had built.
Until Gudrid came, she and the priest had had it pretty much to
themselves, for the people in the Settlement stood by Eric, their great
man. But Gudrid went to church with Theodhild, and renewed her
emotions. She seemed to escape from her shadow in there. One little
twinkling light before the altar shone to her through the fog and bade
her still to hope.

Then there was Freydis. Oddly enough Freydis took to her, thoug