When you pass the Hel-ya Water
Cast a pebble to its wave." [12]

[1] Haven.

[2] Holy lake.

[3] Lowland mists meet each other.

[4] Wanderer.

[5] Guarded by Christian rites from evil spirits, who are supposed to
have great licence at Yule.

[6] Candles used on festive occasions.

[7] Water bucket which was always required to be full of _clean_ water
at Yule.

[8] Trolls.

[9] Plains or pasture-land.

[10] Bullrushes which trows are supposed to use as aerial horses.

[11] Fresh-water lake.

[12] When passing any haunted water people cast therein a stone to
appease the troubled spirits.

CHAPTER XXVI.

"THAT WORK SHALL BE WROUGHT."

"What a capital job you've made of the story," quoth Yaspard when Garth
had finished. "I feel as if I ought to thank you in the name of my
great-grand-uncle."

"Just so! Bad boy! Uncle! uncle! uncle!" said Thor from a hillock
close by. He spoke so very distinctly, and as if he understood every
word, that even the elderly ladies of the party gazed in a sort of awe
at the uncanny bird.

"Come here, Thor!" Mr. Adiesen called out, extending a tempting bit of
chicken towards Sir Raven, who immediately obeyed the invitation, and
hopped to his master's knee. "Why, you old rascal," the scientist went
on, "I believe you are the great-grand-nephew of that raven of Hel-ya
Water fame; indeed, if I had not taken you myself from the nest when
you were only half-fledged, and I was a boy, I would believe that you
were the identical bird of the legend."

"If Thor lives as long as the former Thor did," said Mr. Neeven, "he
will be over a century when he dies. You remember that fellow, Brues?"

Of course Mr. Adieson remembered his grandfather's raven, who had been
the spy and plague of the lives of both Gaun and Brues (when they were
children), and whom they believed was possessed of an evil spirit.

The conversation drifted into chat about pet birds, until some of the
restless young people proposed a rowing match around the island, and
out of that project sprang another.

"I should like," said Fred, "to take the little lady of the isle around
it in the _Mermaid_ first. She really ought to be the first to
circumnavigate Havnholme. Will you trust her in my boat, Miss Adiesen?"

"I suppose it is quite safe?" Aunt Osla asked by way of reply; and
Signy answered, "I shall be as safe in the _Mermaid_ as I was on Arab."

"Perhaps Mr. Adiesen will accompany us, to