So they did. Their hut was a little mean thing of stones and turf. They
kept the cattle and the hay in it. Sometimes they slept there, when it
was very cold. But most of the time they ate and slept by a great
bonfire out of doors where it was clean. Leif said:

"I like the cold air of the sea better than the bad-smelling air of a
house, even though it is warm."

Now every day Ingolf and Leif and some of the men walked about the
island. At night they all sat around the campfire and talked of what
they had seen during the day.

"This is surely a wonderful land," Ingolf said once. "It is at the same
time like Niflheim and like Asgard. Here is a spot green and soft, a
sweet cradle for men. Next it is a mountain of ice where men would
freeze to death. And next to that is a hill of rock that seems to have
come out of some great fire. Yesterday I saw a cave on the seashore. The
door of it was big enough for a giant. The waves broke at the doorstep.
A terrible roaring came from the cave. I think it is the home of a
giant. I think that giants of fire and giants of frost made this island.
I have seen great basins in the rocks filled with warm water. They
looked like giants' bath-tubs. I have seen boiling water shoot up out of
the ground. I have walked, and have felt and heard a great rumbling
under me as though some giant were sleeping there and turning over in
his sleep. One day I stood on a mountain and looked inland. There was a
wide desert of sand and black and red rock with nothing growing on it.
The fierce wind blew dirt into my eyes, and the cold of it froze the
marrow in my bones. When I have seen these things I have cursed the
country, and have said: 'The gods hate Iceland. I will not stay here.'
But then I have walked through beautiful warm valleys where the winds
did not come. I saw in my mind the flowers that we found last summer. I
saw our cattle feeding on the sweet grass. I thought of the sea full of
good fish. I saw my house built among green fields, and my wife sitting
in her home, and my children playing among the flowers and making up
tales about the bright ice mountains. I saw the wide, rough seas between
me and Harald and our foes. Then I thought to myself, 'It is the
sweetest home on earth.' As for me, I am coming here to live. What do
you say, comrades?"

"Have I not vowed to follow you, foster-brother?" said Leif. "And indeed
I never saw a land that I liked better. I don't believe in your giants.
My s