til we came to the hollow, and I
saw the tiny hut where my new friend lived. The hollow was a gruesome
place. It acted as a kind of funnel whereby the wind from the great
woods was poured over the beach, and sent moaning away across the sea.
In summer it was gay with bracken, and golden ragwort, and wild
geranium, but in winter it looked only fit for adventurous witches to
gambol in.

I said, "The wind must yell awfully here when it is a gusty night."

A curious look came into the young fellow's eye, and gave me a new
interest in him. He answered:

"I like it. The wind here's like nowhere else. It plays tunes on the
trees there as it comes through, and I get the echoes of them. Sometimes
I hear the men's voices, and then I know what it is. It's the old
Norsemen going out over the sea to look at their tracks again. Bless
you, I've heard them talk about the Swan's bath. Sometimes the dead
ladies come and whisper, and I know they're walking in the woods all the
time the dusk lasts."

I stared very much. This speech did not sound very sane, and yet it was
uttered by a quiet young lad who looked as if he might be trusted. I
thought, "Oh! Here's a kind of poet, or something of that sort," and I
said, smilingly, "How do you come to know about the Norsemen, then?"

"I have several books. I got one on a stall--a very good one about
heroes. It has a lot in it about the Norsemen. If you come in you can
see my books. You might have some tea. I put the kettle ready before I
went out."

I stepped into the hut, and found it warm and cosy. A cake of barley
bread was on the table, and a little black teapot stood there also.
There was no furniture but a low wooden bed, one chair, a settle, and a
broad shelf. On the shelf was a slate scrabbled all over with
geometrical figures, and one of these figures was a parabola with two
tangents drawn touching. This puzzled me much. I sat down to warm my
hands and my half-frozen face, and when I felt comfortable I said,

"Do you read conic sections, young gentleman?"

His bonnet was off now, and I saw his broad, compact forehead and his
massive temples. He looked capable of reading anything.

He replied, quite simply:

"Oh, yes! I read geometrical conics."

"And did you teach yourself?"

"Yes. It isn't hard after you've got over the sixth book of Euclid."

I grew more and more puzzled and interested. We had some tea, which made
me feel positively luxurious, and then I looked at the b