g in form the cap of modern fishermen.
The udallers, such as Haldor, Ulf, and their children, were clad in
finer garments, which were looped and buttoned with brooches and
pendants of gold and silver, the booty gathered on those viking cruises,
against which Hilda inveighed so earnestly.

The work went on vigorously until the sun began to sink behind the
mountain range that lay to the north-westward of the dale. By this time
the hay was all cut, and that portion which was sufficiently dry piled
up, so Ulf and Haldor left the work to be finished by the younger hands,
and stood together in the centre of the field chatting and looking on.

Little change had taken place in the personal appearance of Ulf of
Romsdal since the occasion of that memorable duel related in the first
chapter of our story. Some of his elasticity, but none of his strength,
was gone. There was perhaps a little more thought in his face, and a
few more wrinkles on his swarthy brow, but his hair was still black and
his figure straight as the blade of his good sword. His old enemy but
now fast friend, Haldor the Fierce, had changed still less. True, his
formerly smooth chin and cheeks were now thickly covered with luxuriant
fair hair, but his broad forehead was still unwrinkled, and his clear
blue eye was as bright as when, twenty years before, it gleamed in
youthful fire at Ulf. Many a battle had Haldor fought since then, at
home and abroad, and several scars on his countenance and shoulders gave
evidence that he had not come out of these altogether scathless; but war
had not soured him. His smile was as free, open, and honest, and his
laugh as loud and hearty, as in days of yore. Erling was the
counterpart of his father, only a trifle taller and stouter. At a short
distance they might have been taken for twin brothers, and those who did
not know them could scarcely have believed that they were father and
son.

Close to the spot where the two friends stood, a sturdy thrall was
engaged in piling up hay with an uncommon degree of energy. This man
had been taken prisoner on the coast of Ireland by Ulf, during one of
his sea-roving expeditions. He had a huge massive frame, with a
profusion of red hair on his head and face, and a peculiarly humorous
twinkle in his eye. His name was Kettle Flatnose. We have reason to
believe that the first part of this name had no connection with that
domestic utensil which is intimately associated with tea! It