ef at the sight
of Alwin, whom he had evidently given up as a runaway. Helga welcomed
Sigurd in a delighted cry.

The young Northman greeted her with frank affection, and saluted Tyrker
almost as fondly.

"This meeting gladdens me more than tongue can tell. I do not see how it
was that I did not recognize you as I passed. And yet those garments,
Helga! By St. Michael, you look well-fitted to be the Brynhild we used
to hear about!"

Helga's fair face flushed, and Alwin smiled inwardly. He was curious to
know what the young Viking would do if the young Amazon boxed his ears,
as he thought likely. But it seemed that Helga was only ungentle toward
those whom she considered beneath her friendliness. While she motioned
Alwin with an imperious gesture to hand her the rein she had dropped,
she responded good-naturedly to Sigurd: "Nay, now, my comrade, you will
not be mean enough to scold about my short kirtle, when it was you who
taught me to do the things that make a short kirtle necessary! Have you
forgotten how you used to steal me away from my embroidery to hunt with
you?"

"By no means," Sigurd laughed. "Nor how Thorhild scolded when we came
back! I would give a ring to know what she would say if she were here
now. It is my belief that you would get a slap, for all your warlike
array."

Helga's spur made her horse prance and rear defiantly. "Thorhild is not
here, nor do I expect that she will ever rule over me again. She struck
me once too often, and I ran away to Leif. For two years now I have
lived almost like the shield-maidens we were wont to talk of. Oh,
Sigurd, I have been so happy!" She threw back her head and lifted her
beautiful face up to the sunlit sky and the fresh wind. "So free and so
happy!"

Alwin thrilled with sudden sympathy. He understood then that it was not
boldness, nor mere waywardness, that made her what she was. It was the
Norse blood crying out for adventure and open air and freedom. It did
not seem strange to him, as he thought of it. It occurred to him, all at
once, as a stranger thing that all maidens did not feel so,--that there
were any who would be kept at spinning, like prisoners fettered in
trailing gowns.

Tyrker nodded in answer to Sigurd's look of amazement. "The truth it is
which the child speaks. Over winters, stays she at the King's house with
one of the Queen's women, who is a friend of Leif; and during the
summer, voyages she makes with me. But to me it appears that of he