outh lands. Besides, war makes
our men brisk and handsome."

"Aye," exclaimed Alric, laughing, "especially when they get their noses
cut off and their cheeks gashed!"

"Sometimes it takes them from us altogether," observed a poor woman of
the household, the widow of a man who had been slain on a viking cruise,
after having had his eyes put out, and being otherwise cruelly treated.

"That is the other side of the question," said Astrid. "Of course
everything has two sides. We cannot change the plans of the gods.
Sunshine and rain, heat and cold, come as they are sent. We must accept
them as they are sent."

"That is true," said Christian, "and thou sayest wisely that we must
accept things as they are sent; but can it be said that war is sent to
us when we rush into it of our own accord? Defensive warfare, truly, is
right--else would this world be left in the sole possession of the
wicked; but aggressive warfare is not right. To go on viking cruise and
take by force that which is not our own is sinful. There is a good way
to prove the truth of these things. Let me ask the question, Astrid,--
How would thy husband like to have thee and all his property taken from
him, and Ulfstede burned about his ears?"

"Methinks he would like it ill."

"Then why should he do that to others which he would not like done to
himself?"

"These are strange words," said Astrid in surprise; "I know not that I
have ever heard the like before."

"Truly no," said Christian, "because the Word of God has not yet been
sounded in the dale. Thou saidst just now that we cannot change the
plans of the gods; that would be true if ye had said `the plans of God,'
for there is but one God, and His ways are unchangeable. But what if
God had revealed some of His plans to man, and told him that this
revelation was sufficient to guide him in his walk through this life,
and to prepare him for the next?"

"Then would I think it man's wisdom to follow that guide carefully,"
replied Astrid.

"Such plans do exist, such a revelation has been made," said the hermit,
"and the name that stands on the forefront of it is Jesus Christ."

As he spoke the hermit drew from his bosom a scroll of parchment, which
he unrolled slowly. This, he said, was a copy, made by himself, of part
of the Gospel. He had meant, he said, to have copied the whole of it,
but war had put an end to his labours at the same time that it deprived
him of his earthly joys, and d