pounds of gold."

Then the woman carried the baby back to the queen's room.

[Illustration: "_I own this baby for my son. He shall be called
Harald_"]

"My lord owns him for his son," she said. "And no wonder! He is perfect
in every limb."

The queen looked at him and smiled and remembered her dream and thought:

"That great tree! Can it be this little baby of mine?"

[Decoration]

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See note about house on page 194.

[2] See note about names on page 194.

[Illustration]

The Tooth Thrall

When Harald was seven months old he cut his first tooth. Then his father
said:

"All the young of my herds, lambs and calves and colts, that have been
born since this baby was born I this day give to him. I also give to him
this thrall, Olaf. These are my tooth-gifts to my son."

The boy grew fast, for as soon as he could walk about he was out of
doors most of the time. He ran in the woods and climbed the hills and
waded in the creek. He was much with his tooth thrall, for the king had
said to Olaf:

"Be ever at his call."

Now this Olaf was full of stories, and Harald liked to hear them.

"Come out to Aegir's Rock, Olaf, and tell me stories," he said almost
every day.

So they started off across the hills. The man wore a long, loose coat of
white wool, belted at the waist with a strap. He had on coarse shoes
and leather leggings. Around his neck was an iron collar welded together
so that it could not come off. On it were strange marks, called runes,
that said:

"Olaf, thrall of Halfdan."

But Harald's clothes were gay. A cape of gray velvet hung from his
shoulders. It was fastened over his breast with great gold buckles. When
it waved in the wind, a scarlet lining flashed out, and the bottom of a
little scarlet jacket showed. His feet and legs were covered with gray
woolen tights. Gold lacings wound around his legs from his shoes to his
knees. A band of gold held down his long, yellow hair.

It was a wild country that these two were walking over. They were
climbing steep, rough hills. Some of them seemed made all of rock, with
a little earth lying in spots. Great rocks hung out from them, with
trees growing in their cracks. Some big pieces had broken off and rolled
down the hill.

"Thor broke them," Olaf said. "He rides through the sky and hurls his
hammer at clouds and at mountains. That makes the thunder and the
lightning and cracks the hills. His hammer never misses its aim, a