leasant, if only _she_ were there!

Poor Bertha was so taken aback by the cool and sudden boldness of this
unexpected reply, that she looked hastily round in alarm lest it had
been overheard; but Hake, not intending that it should be overheard, had
addressed it to her ear, and fortunately at the moment the grating of
the keel upon the pebbly shore drew the attention of all to the land.

"Now, then, jump ashore, lads," cried Biarne, "and get out the gangway.
Make it broad, for our cattle must not be allowed to risk their limbs by
tumbling off."

While Biarne superintended the gangway, Thorward prepared the live stock
for their agreeable change, and Karlsefin went up to examine the state
of the huts. They were found to be in excellent condition, having been
well built originally, and the doors and windows having been secured
against the weather by those who had used them last.

"No natives can have been here," observed the leader of the party to
those who accompanied him, "because every fastening is secured,
apparently, as it was left."

"Nevertheless, Sigrid and I have seen footprints in the sand," remarked
the woman Gunhild, coming up at that moment.

"Show them to me," said Karlsefin, with much interest.

"Yonder they are," replied the woman, pointing towards a sandy spot on
her left, "and he who made them must have been a giant, they are so
large."

"Truly, a dangerous giant to meet with," observed Karlsefin, laughing,
when he reached the place, "these are none other, Gunhild, than the
footprints of the bear that the two Scots sent away with the toothache.
But come, we will open these huts and have them put in order and made
comfortable against supper-time. So, get to work all of you and see how
active you can be."

While some of the party were busily engaged in sweeping out and
arranging the huts, others shouldered their axes and went into the woods
to cut down a few dead trees for firewood, and when the gangway between
the ship and the shore was completed the live stock was driven on shore.

There was something quite impressive in this part of the landing. There
was a deliberate slowness in the movements of most of the animals that
gave to it quite the air of a solemn procession, and must have been a
good illustration, on a small scale, of the issuing of the beasts from
Noah's Ark on the top of Ararat!

The first creature which, appropriately enough, led the van, was a
lordly black bull. Little Olaf