he good, clanging music of weapons at play. It is a good land, but we
have lived alone for four years. I am hungry for new faces and for
tidings of Norway."

One night as he and his men sat about the long fire in the feast hall, a
servant threw a great piece of wood upon the fire. It was streaked with
faded paint and it showed bits of carving.

"See," said Ingolf, pointing to it, "see what is left of a good ship's
prow! What lands have you seen, O dragon's head? What battles have you
fought? What was your master's name? Where did the storm meet you?
Perhaps he was coming to Iceland, comrades. Would it not have been
pleasant to see his sail and to shake his hand and to welcome him to
Iceland? But instead he is in Ran's caves, and only his broken prow has
drifted here."

Now it was not many months after that when one of the men came running
into the feast hall, shouting:

"A sail! a sail in the harbor!"

All those men gave a shout with no word in it, as though their hearts
had leaped into their throats. They jumped up and ran to the shore and
stood there with hungry eyes. When the men landed, those Icelanders
clapped them on the shoulders, and tears ran down their faces. For a
long time they could say nothing but "Welcome! Welcome!"

[Illustration: "_Those Icelanders clapped them on the shoulders_"]

But after a while Ingolf led them to the feast hall and had a feast
spread at once. While the thralls were at work, the men stood together
and talked. Such a noise had never been in that hall before.

"We have already built our fires and claimed our land up the shore a
way," the leader said. "Men in Norway talk much of Ingolf and Leif, and
wonder what has happened to them."

Then Ingolf told them of all that had come to pass in Iceland; and then
he asked of Norway.

"Ah! things are going from bad to worse," the newcomers said. "Harald
grows mightier every day. A man dare not swing a sword now except for
the king. We came here to get away from him. Many men are talking of
Iceland. Soon the sea-road between here and Norway will be swarming with
dragons."

And so it was. Ships also came from Ireland and from the Shetlands and
the Orkneys.

"Harald has come west-over-seas," the men of these ships said, "and has
laid his heavy hand upon the islands and put his earls over them. They
are no place now for free men."

So by the time Ingolf was an old man, Iceland was no longer an empty
land. Every valley was spotted w