ailed in and drew their ships up on shore. They put up the
awnings in them.

"These shall be our houses," Thorfinn said.

They were strange-looking houses--shining dragons with gay backs lying
on the yellow sand. Near them the Norsemen lighted fires and cooked
their supper. That night they slept in the ships. In the morning Gudrid
said:

"I long to see what is back of that mountain."

So they all climbed it. When they stood on the top they could see far
over the country.

"There is a lake that we must see," Thorfinn said.

"I should like to sail around that bay," said Biarni, pointing.

"I am going to walk up that valley yonder," one of the men said.

And everyone saw some place where he would like to go. So for all that
summer they camped in that spot and went about the country seeing new
things. They hunted in the woods and caught rabbits and birds and
sometimes bears and deer. Every day some men rowed out to sea and
fished. There was an island in the bay where thousands of birds had
their nests. The men gathered eggs here.

"We have more to eat than we had in Greenland or Iceland," Thorfinn
said, "and need not work at all. It is all play."

Near the end of summer Thorfinn spoke to his comrades.

"Have we not seen everything here? Let us go to a new place. We have not
yet found grapes."

Thorfinn and Biarni and all their men sailed south again. But some of
Eric's men went off in their boat another way. Years afterward the
Greenlanders heard that they were shipwrecked and made slaves in
Ireland.

After Thorfinn and Biarni had sailed for many days they landed on a low,
green place. There were hills around it. A little lake was there.

"What is growing on those hillsides?" Thorfinn said, shading his eyes
with his hand.

He and some others ran up there. The people on shore heard them shout.
Soon they came running back with their hands full of something.

"Grapes! Grapes!" they were shouting.

All those people sat down and ate the grapes and then went to the
hillside and picked more.

"Now we are indeed in Wineland," they said. "It is as wonderful as
Leif's stories. Surely we must stay here for a long time."

The very next day they went into the woods and began to cut out lumber.
The huts that they built were little things. They had no windows, and in
the doorways the men hung their cloaks instead of doors.

"We can be out in the air so much in this warm country," said Gudrid,
"that we do not need