well as with her. Show not quite so much
attention to her as has been thy wont; and be more attentive to the
other girls in the dale--"

"To Hilda, for instance," said Glumm slyly.

"Aye, even so, an it please thee," rejoined Erling; "but rest assured
thou wilt receive no encouragement in that quarter; for Hilda the
Sunbeam is the very soul of innocence, truth, and straightforwardness."

"Not less so is Ada," said Glumm, firing up at the implied contrast.

Erling made a sharp rejoinder, to which Glumm made a fierce reply; and
it is probable that these hot-blooded youths, having quarrelled because
of a misunderstanding in regard to their mistresses, would have come to
blows about their comparative excellence, had they not come suddenly
upon a sight which, for the time, banished all other thoughts from their
minds.

During the discussion they had been descending the valley which
terminated in the plain where the recent battle of the Springs had been
fought. Here, as they galloped across the field, which was still strewn
with the bodies of the slain, they came upon the blackened ruins of a
hut, around which an old hag was moving, actively engaged, apparently,
in raking among the ashes with a forked stick for anything that she
could draw forth.

Near to her a woman, who had not yet reached middle age, was seated on
the burnt earth, with her hands tightly clasped, and her bloodshot eyes
gazing with a stony stare at a blackened heap which lay on her lap. As
the young men rode up they saw that part of the head and face of a child
lay in the midst of the charred heap, with a few other portions of the
little one that had been only partially consumed in the fire.

The Northmen did not require to be told the cause of what they saw. The
story was too plainly written in everything around them to admit of
uncertainty, had they even been ignorant of the recent fight and its
consequences. These were two of the few survivors of that terrible
night, who had ventured to creep forth from the mountains and search
among the ashes for the remains of those whose smiles and voices had
once made the sunshine of their lives. The terrible silence of these
voices and the sight of these hideous remains had driven the grandmother
of the household raving mad, and she continued to rake among the still
smouldering embers of the old house, utterly regardless of the two
warriors, and only complaining, in a querulous tone now and then, that