for me to speak to a man again. I am so tired of
women and their endless gabble of brewing and spinning. Yesterday
Freydis, Eric's daughter, drove over, and all the while she was here she
talked of nothing but--"

"Eric's daughter?" Alwin repeated in surprise. "Not until now have I
heard that Leif had a sister. Why is she never spoken of? Where does she
live?"

Helga shrugged impatiently. "She lives at Gardar with a witless man
named Thorvard, whom she married for his wealth. She is a despisable
creature. And the reason no one speaks of her is that if he did he would
feel Thorhild's hands in his hair. There is great hatred between them.
Yesterday they quarrelled before Freydis had been here any time at all.
And I was about to say that I was glad of it, since it brought about
Freydis' departure: all the time she was here she spoke of nothing save
her ornaments and costly things. Oh, I do not see why Odin had the wish
to create women! It would have been pleasanter if they had remained
elm-trees."

Alwin regarded her with eyes of the warmest good-will. "It would become
a heavy misfortune to me if you were an elm-tree,--though it is likely
that I should speak with you then quite as often as I do now. Except at
meals, I seldom see you. But I never pass your window that I do not
remember that you are toiling within, and say to myself that I am sorry
for your bad luck."

"I give you thanks," answered Helga, with her friendly smile. "Where
have the other men gone? I wished to speak with Sigurd."

"They have gone to the landing-place, to watch for a ship that Valbrand
sighted this morning from the rocks."

She cried out joyfully: "A ship in Einar's Fiord? Then it belongs to
some chief of the settlement, who is returning from a Viking voyage!
There will be a fine feast made to welcome him."

Alwin followed her doubtfully up the lane between the white patches. "Is
it likely that that will do us any good? It is possible that Leif will
not be invited."

The heat of her scorn was like to have dried the drops she was
scattering. "You are out of your senses. Do you think men who trade
among the Christians are so little-minded as Eric? Leif is known to be a
man of renown, and the friend of Olaf Trygvasson. They will be proud to
sit at table with him."

"It may be that he will refuse to feast with heathens."

"That is possible," Helga admitted. She emptied her pan with a little
flirt of impatience, and sighed. "How tiresome