imes of late Havelok had gone dinnerless, that he might feed
some weak one in the village. Maybe some of us did likewise; but, if so,
we learned from him.

"Well, then," Havelok said, when we had had our wretched laugh, "Alsi,
the king, can better afford to feed me than can anyone else. Therefore,
I will go and see about it. And if not the king, then, doubtless, some
rich merchant will give me food for work, seeing that I can lift things
handily. But Radbard here is a great and hungry man also, and it will be
well that he come with me; or else, being young and helpless, I may fall
into bad hands."

So he spoke, jesting and making little of the matter. But I saw that he
was right, and that we who were strong to take what might come should go
away. It was likely that a day of our meals would make a week's fare for
Arngeir's three little ones, and they were to be thought for.

Now for a little while Arngeir tried to keep us back; but it was plain
that he knew also that our going was well thought of, and only his care
for Havelok stood in the way. Indeed, he said that I and Raven might go.

"Raven knows as much about the fish as did our father," Havelok said.
"He will go out in the morning, and look at sky and sea, and sniff at
the wind; and if I say it will be fine, he says that the herrings will
be in such a place; and so they are, while maybe it rains all day to
spite my weather wisdom. You cannot do without Raven; for it is ill to
miss any chance of the sea just now. Nor can Withelm go, for he knows
all in the place, and who is most in want. It will not do to be without
house steward. So we two will go. Never have I been to Lincoln yet, and
Radbard knows the place well."

I think that I have never said that Grim would never take Havelok to the
city, lest he should be known by some of the Danish folk who came now
and then to the court, some from over seas, and others from the court of
King Ethelwald, of whom I have spoken, the Norfolk king. But that danger
was surely over now, for Havelok would be forgotten in Denmark; and
Ethelwald was long dead, and his wife also, leaving his daughter
Goldberga to her uncle Alsi, as his ward. So Alsi held both kingdoms
until the princess was of age, when she would take her own. It was said
that she lived at Dover until that time, and so none of her Danes were
likely to be at court if we went there and found places.

So Havelok's plan was to be carried out, and he and I were to set