those countries. Their houses sat in these strange
lands like warriors' camps, and the Norsemen went among their new
neighbors with hanging swords and spears in hand, ever ready for fight.

There are many islands north of Scotland. They are called the Orkneys
and the Shetlands. They have many good harbors for ships. They are
little and rocky and bare of trees. Wild sea-birds scream around them.
On some of them a man can stand in the middle and see the ocean all
about him. Now the vikings sailed to these islands and were pleased.

[Illustration: "_In Norway they left burning houses and weeping
women_"]

"It is like being always in a boat," they said. "This shall be our
home."

So it went until all the lands round about were covered with vikings.
Norse carved and painted houses brightened the hillsides. Viking ships
sailed all the seas and made harbor in every river. Norsemen's thralls
plowed the soil and planted crops and herded cattle, and gold flowed
into their masters' treasure-chests. Norse warriors walked up and down
the land, and no man dared to say them nay.

These men did not forget Norway. In the summers they sailed back there
and harried the coast. They took gold and grain and beautiful cloth back
to their homes. In Norway they left burning houses and weeping women.

Every summer King Harald had out his ships and men and hunted these
vikings. There are many little islands about Norway. They have crags and
caves and deep woods. Here the vikings hid when they saw King Harald's
ships coming. But Harald ran his boat into every creek and fiord and
hunted in every cave and through all the woods and among the crags. He
caught many men, but most of them got away and went home laughing at
Harald. Then they came back the next summer and did the same deeds over
again. At last King Harald said:

"There is but one thing to do. I must sail to these western islands and
whip these robbers in their own homes."

So he went with a great number of ships. He found as brave men as he had
brought from Norway. These vikings had brought their old courage to
their new homes. King Harald's fine ships were scarred by viking stones
and scorched by viking fire. The shields of Harald's warriors had dents
from viking blows. Many of those men carried viking scars all their
lives. And many of King Harald's warriors walked the long, hard road to
Valhalla, and feasted there with some of these very vikings that had
died in King Harald's