of yours here," he said, looking
inland on the rolling downs and forest-hidden valleys.

"Fairer than your own?" I asked.

"Surely; else why should we care to leave our homes?"

"Ho, Thrond!" shouted some man from the wharves, "here are cattle
coming in."

The old warrior turned and left us, going ashore. Round the turning
of the street inland, whence we came, some of the mounted men were
driving our red cattle from the nearer meadows, and doing it well
as any drover who ever waited for hire at a fair. I saw that they
had great heavy-headed dogs, tall and smooth haired, which worked
well enough, though not so well as our rough gray shepherd dogs.
The ship we were in lay alongside the wooden wharf; and one could
watch all that went on, for the fore deck was high above the busy
crowd ashore.

I wondered for a few minutes what the Danes would do with the
cattle; but they had no doubt at all. Before old Thrond had reached
them the work of slaughter had begun, and wonderfully fast the men
were carrying the meat on board the ships, heaping it in piles
forward, and throwing the hides over the heaps. I heard one of the
guards say to another that this was a good "strand hewing," that
being their name for this hasty victualling of the ships.

More cattle came in presently, and sheep also, to be served in the
same way. There were a hundred and fifty men or so on each ship,
and I think that this was the first landing they had made since
they left Ireland, so that they were in need of plenty of stores.

Then all in the midst of the bustle came the wild note of a war
horn from somewhere inland beyond the town, and in a moment every
man stood still where he happened to be, and listened. Twice again
the note sounded, and a horseman came clattering down to the shore.
He was Thorleif, the chief with whom we had spoken, and he reined
up the horse and lifted his hand, with a short, sharp order of some
kind.

At that every man dropped what he was carrying, and the men who
were stowing the plunder on board the ships left their work and
hurried ashore, gripping their weapons from where they had set them
against the gunwales. There was a moment's wild hurrying on the
wharves, and then the warriors were drawn up in three lines along
the wharf, across the berths where they had laid the ships, and
facing the landward road. Only the ship guard never stirred.

"If only we could get our men to form up like these!" said Elfric.
"See, eve