some of the men swooned of
the cold that came up from the ice of the fiord; the teeth of others
became loose and the flesh of their gums fell away, and on the soles
of the feet of a few the frost of the nights raised blisters as big
as walnuts.

Partly from these privations and partly from loss of heart when at
last one evil day he saw his good ship crushed to splinters against
the rocks, the master fell sick, and was brought so low that in less
than a week he lay expecting his good hour. And feeling his extremity
he appointed Adam to succeed him as director of the company, to guide
them to safety over the land, since Providence forbade that they
should sail on the seas. Then, all being done, so far as his help
could avail, he stretched himself out for his end, only praying in
his last hours that he might be allowed to drink as much ale as he
liked from the ship's stores that had been saved. This Adam ordered
that he should, and as long as he lived the ale was brought to him in
the hut where he lay, and he drank it until, between draught and
draught, it froze in the jug at his side. After that he died--an
honest, a worthy, and strong-hearted man.

And Adam, being now by choice of the late master and consent of his
crew the leader of the company, began to make a review of all men and
clothes and victuals, and found that there were eleven of them in
all, with little more than they stood up in, and provisions to last
them, with sparing, three weeks at utmost. And seeing that they were
cut off from all hope of a passage by sea, he set himself to count
the chances of a journey by land, and by help of the ship's charts
and much beating of the wings of memory to recover what he had
learned of Iceland in the days when his dear lad Sunlocks had left
him for these shores, he reckoned that by following the sea line
under the feet of the great Vatna-Jokull, they might hope, if they
could hold out so long, to reach Reykjavik at last. Long and weary
the journey must be, with no town and scarce a village to break it,
and no prospect of shelter by the way, save what a few farms might
give them. So Adam ordered the carpenter to recover what he could of
the ship's sails to make a tent, and of its broken timbers to make a
cart to carry victuals, and when this was done they set off along the
fell side on the first stage of their journey.

The same day, towards nightfall, they came upon a little group of
grass-covered houses at the top