e him some little alms to satisfy him!"

Olaf flushed angrily as he answered: "Nay, it is not for that I came;
but, Thorbiorn, I will not seek thy lost sheep a third time." And as
he turned and strode indignantly from the hall Vakr mocked and jeered
at him. Yet Olaf passed forth in silence.

The third year Olaf found and brought home all men's sheep but
Thorbiorn's; and then Vakr spread the rumour that Olaf had stolen
them, since he could not otherwise obtain a share of them. This rumour
came at last to Howard's ears, and he upbraided Olaf, saying, when his
son praised their mutton, "Yes, it is good, and it is really ours, not
Thorbiorn's. It is terrible that we have to bear such injustice."

Olaf said nothing, but, seizing the leg of mutton, flung it across the
room; and Howard smiled at the wrath which his son could no longer
suppress; perhaps, too, Howard longed to see Olaf in conflict with
Thorbiorn.

Olaf and the Wizard's Ghost

While Howard was still upbraiding Olaf a widow entered, who had come
to ask for help in a difficult matter. Her dead husband (a reputed
wizard) returned to his house night after night as a dreadful ghost,
and no man would live in the house. Would Howard come and break the
spell and drive away the dreadful nightly visitant?

"Alas!" replied Howard, "I am no longer young and strong. Why do you
not ask Thorbiorn? He accounts himself to be chief here, and a
chieftain should protect those in his country-side."

"Nay," said the widow. "I am only too glad if Thorbiorn lets me alone.
I will not meddle with him."

Then said Olaf: "Father, I will go and try my strength with this
ghost, for I am young and stronger than most, and I deem such a matter
good sport."

Accordingly Olaf went back with the widow, and slept in the hall that
night, with a skin rug over him. At nightfall the dead wizard came in,
ghastly, evil-looking, and terrible, and tore the skin from over Olaf;
but the youth sprang up and wrestled with the evil creature, who
seemed to have more than mortal strength. They fought grimly till the
lights died out, and the struggle raged in the darkness up and down
the hall, and finally out of doors. In the yard round the house the
dead wizard fell, and Olaf knelt upon him and broke his back, and
thought him safe from doing any mischief again. When Olaf returned to
the hall men had rekindled the lights, and all made much of him, and
tended his bruises and wounds, and counted him a he