, and the next day Grim
set out for the traitor's castle to ask for the reward that had been
promised him.

'Your bidding is done, and I have come to claim my freedom,' said Grim
when he stood in the presence of the traitor. But the earl made answer:

'Who is there to know what lies betwixt us? Go home, and be my thrall,
as you have ever been.'

Full of rage though he was, Grim dared say no more, lest his head should
pay forfeit; but the earl's words had filled him with fear, and he
hastened to get ready a ship and to fill it during the night with food
enough to last them for three weeks. By that time, he thought, they
would reach the shores of England.

When all was finished, Grim and his wife, his three sons and two
daughters and little Havelok, stole away very early one morning before
the sun was up, and set sail southwards. A north wind soon sprang up and
drove him, in ten days, to the mouth of a great river called the Humber.
Here he steered his ship on to the beach, and then they all got out and
set up a tent, till they could look about for a little and see what best
to do.

It was a wild place where they landed, and for many miles there was not
even a hut to be seen, but Grim liked it well, and he built houses for
himself and his family, and by-and-by more people came thither also, and
a town was built and was called Grimsby, after Grim. But that happened
afterwards.

Fish were plentiful at the mouth of the river--lampreys and sturgeon and
turbot and great cod--and Grim and his sons were good fishers, both with
net and line, and Havelok soon learned to fish too, and was as happy as
any boy could be. Sometimes he stayed at home with the women while the
others carried fish round the country in baskets.

Twelve years passed in this manner, during which Grim had prospered
greatly, but he began to get old, and the long journeys with heavy
panniers on his back tried him sorely. This Havelok perceived, and one
day he spoke:

'I am a man grown, and shall I sit at home idle mending nets while my
father travels over the whole country-side carrying weights too heavy
for him to bear? Not so! To-morrow I go forth, and my father shall take
his seat by the fire, and shall mend the nets.'

Whatever Havelok said he did, and early the next morning he took the
panniers on his shoulders, and started for the houses where Grim was
wont to sell his fish. But soon, none could tell why, a bad time came,
and there was no corn