ng opened his eyes very wide. Evidently he knew nothing of the
sort, and Fred laughed as he glanced over the sheet of paper which had
come out of his pocket with that other letter.

"I don't believe you have the least idea _how_ good a letter it is. My
mother cried over it, and Isobel declared the writer ought to be
crowned king of every 'vik' in Shetland."

"Oh, come!" Yaspard exclaimed, blushing hotly at his own praises so
sung.

We will take the liberty of looking over Fred Garson's shoulder, and
reading that epistle which had done so much good.

"DEAR MR. GARSON,--My uncle has directed that the enclosed letter shall
be sent to you, so I must put it with this. It is none of _my_
business to judge him, and I am sure _you_ will not forget that he is
an old man, and has been bred up with a lot of old-fangled fads, and
lives a very solitary kind of life. I want you to know that I have
begun a kind of game which I expect will give me a chance of meeting
some of your Lunda fellows. I would take it as a great honour if you
would keep an eye upon us in this matter, and umpire us when we get
anyhow mixed about the rights of the game. I hope to find the Manse
boys at Havnholme, and will tell them, so that they can explain to you.
I am going to pretend to be a Viking, and make raids. But I'd like
_you_ to know something more about it than the mere play and nonsense.

"I just hate that horrid, miserable quarrel, which uncle speaks about
as The Feud; it seems such a stupid, cruel sort of thing. Poor Aunt
Osla cries about it, and my little sister and I are sometimes so
unhappy over it that we vow we shall make an end of it when we are
grown up. It is so awfully hard to think that there are so many boys
and girls like us growing up in Lunda, and we can't know them because
of the Feud. The truth is, I have not patience to wait till I am grown
up. It will be too late then, for I shall have lost my boy-friends
while I was a boy. Now, I hope you will understand that my Viking
exploits have got a really good kind of idea at the bottom of them; so
if you hear of fights, and forays, and the like, you will know that I
am trying in that way to 'settle' this hideous old vampire of a fend.
It's the only way I could think of while Uncle Brues feels as he does.

"I know you are a right good fellow, as your father was, and you will
help me. I do need a good fellow's help, and you can't think how my
heart seems sometimes like