seemed had spent their all in food for themselves and their families,
and all the money in Lindsey seemed to have gone away to places where
there was yet somewhat to buy.

Busy were those kind sisters of ours that night in making ready the last
meal that we should need to take from them. And all the while they
foretold pleasant things for us at the king's court--how that we
should find high honour and the like. So they set us forth well and
cheerfully.

With the dawn we started, and Havelok was thoughtful beyond his wont
after we had bidden farewell to the home folk, so that I thought that he
grieved for leaving them at the last.

"Downhearted, are you, brother?" I said, when we had gone a couple of
miles in silence across the level. "I have been to Lincoln two or three
times in a month sometimes in the summer, and it is no great distance
after all. I think nothing of the journey, or of going so short a way
from home."

"Nor do I," he answered. "First, I was thinking of the many times my
father, Grim, went this way, and now he can walk no more; and then I was
thinking of that empty cottage we passed just now, where there was a
pleasant little family enough three months ago, who are all gone. And
then--ay, I will tell you--I had a dream last night that stays in my
mind, so that I think that out of this journey of ours will come somewhat."

"Food and shelter, to wit," said I, "which is all we want for a month or
two. Let us hear it."

"If we get all that I had in that dream, we shall want no more all our
lives," he said, with a smile; "but it seems a foolish dream, now that I
come to tell it."

"That is mostly the way with dreams. It is strange how wonderful they
seem until daylight comes. I have heard Witlaf's gleeman say that the
best lays he ever made were in his sleep; but if he remembered aught of
them, they were naught."

"It is not like that altogether with my dream," Havelok said, "for it
went thus. I thought that I was in Denmark--though how I knew it was
Denmark I cannot say--and on a hill I sat, and at my feet was
stretched out all the land, so that I could see all over it at once.
Then I longed for it, and I stretched out my arms to gather it in, and
so long were they that they could well fathom it, and so I drew it to
myself. With towns and castles it was gathered in, and the keys of the
strongholds fell rattling at my feet, while the weight of the great land
seemed to lie on my knees. Then said one