e east; and we, who could handle the
ship, but knew little of reckoning, crept northward again in the hope to
sight the coast of Norway. For two days we held on at this, lying close
by the wind, and in good spirits, although our progress was not much;
but on the third blew another gale--this time from the south-east--and
for a week gale followed gale, and we went in deadly peril, yet never
losing hope. The worst was the darkness, for the year was now drawing
towards Yule, and as we pressed farther north we lost almost all sight
of the sun.

At length, with the darkness and the bitter cold and our stores running
low, we resolved to let the wind take us with what swiftness it might to
whatsoever land it listed; and so ran westward, with darkness closing
upon us, and famine and a great despair.

But the lady Mette did not lose heart, and the worst of all (our failing
cupboard) we kept from her, so that she never lacked for plenty.
Truly her cheerfulness paid us back, and her love for my master, the
like of which I had not seen in this world; no, nor dreamed of.
Hand in hand this pair would sit, watching the ice which was our prison
and the great North Lights, she close against Ebbe's side for warmth,
and (I believe) as happy us a bird; he trembling for the end.
The worst was to see her at table, pressing food to his mouth and
wondering at his little hunger; while his whole body cried out for the
meat, only it could not be spared.

Though she must know soon, none of us had the heart to tell her; and not
out of pity alone, but because with her must die out the last spark by
which we warmed ourselves.

But there came a morning--I write it as of a time long ago, and yet it
was but yesterday, praise be unto God!--there came a morning when I
awoke and found that two of our men had died in the plight, of frost and
famine. They must be hidden before my mistress discovered aught; and so
before her hour of waking we weighted and dropped the bodies overside
into deep water; for the ice had not yet wholly closed about us. Now as
I stooped, I suppose that my legs gave way beneath me. At any rate, I
fell; and in falling struck my head against the bulwarks, and opened my
eyes in that unending dusk to find the lady Mette stooping over me.

Then somehow I was aware that she had called for wine to force down my
throat, and had been told that there was no wine; and also that with
this answer had come to her the knowledge, full and