e have neither trees nor vines. Now half
of you shall gather grapes for the next few days, and the other half
shall cut timber."

So they did, and after a week sailed off. The ship was full of lumber,
and they towed the rowboat loaded with grapes. As they looked back at
the shore, Leif said:

"I will call this country Wineland for the grapes that grow there."

One of the men leaped upon the gunwale and leaned out, clinging to the
sail, and sang:

"Wineland the good, Wineland the warm,
Wineland the green, the great, the fat.
Our dragon fed and crawls away
With belly stuffed and lazy feet.
How long her purple, trailing tail!
She fed and grew to twice her size."

Then all the men waved their hands to the shore and gave a great shout
for that good land.

For all that voyage they had fair weather and sailed into Eric's harbor
before the winter came. Eric saw the ship and ran down to the shore. He
took Leif into his arms and said:

"Oh, my son, my old eyes ached to see you. I hunger to hear of all that
you have seen and done."

"Luck has followed me all the way," said Leif. "See what I have brought
home."

The Greenlanders looked.

"Lumber! lumber!" they cried. "Oh! it is better stuff than gold."

Then they saw the grapes and tasted them.

"Surely you must have plundered Asgard," they said, smacking their lips.

At the feast that night Eric said:

"Leif shall sit in the place of honor."

So Leif sat in the high seat opposite Eric. All men thought him a
handsome and wise man. He told them of the storm and of Wineland.

"No man would ever need a cloak there. The soil is richer than the soil
of Norway. Grain grows wild, and you yourselves saw the grapes that we
got from there. The forests are without end. The sea is full of fish."

The Greenlanders listened with open mouths to all this. They turned and
talked to Leif's ship-comrades who were scattered among them.

Leif noticed two strangers, an old man who sat at Eric's side and a
young woman on the cross-bench. He turned to his brother Thorstein who
sat next to him.

"Who are these strangers?" he asked.

"Thorbiorn and his daughter Gudrid," Thorstein answered. "They landed
here this spring. I never saw our father more glad of anything than to
see this Thorbiorn. They were friends before we left Iceland. When they
saw each other again they could not talk enough of old times. In the
spring Eric means to give him a farm up the fi