s crossed it to us; we know not where it goes; or
where we are."

The old man spoke grandly, but his kind eyes ever glanced along the
table to see if we wanted anything.

We men drew long breaths, and I saw my lord draw down his brows, and
tug the fair hair over his forehead. Some of us got up, and began to
walk about.

Then in the midst of the silence my lord spoke hesitatingly.

"We thank my Lord Uffe for his kindness. What can we do--can we sail
home--and where? Still, for the present, we thank my Lord Uffe for his
kindness."

The old man, pulling his beard, stood, looking at my lord for a moment;
then, a smile coming to his lips and showing in his eyes, he held out
his hand and said, "Stay."

It was some days before we got the things out of the ship and the ship
well hauled up on the beach. Then we looked about for a place for our
houses; for we had decided to stay, at least for a while.

The land seemed good; the sand, broken with rocky points, stretched
straight along the bright sea; and, protected from the sea-winds and
storms by a line of oak forest left standing, lay fields now just green
in the spring-time. Beyond these fields, fenced off from one another by
little walls of stone, drew in the forest again, the colour of the
light-green of a curling wave, and as limitless as the sea. In the edge
of the forest, surrounded by a few of the great trees, the others being
taken away, on a little rise in the ground, stood the old wooden hall of
Lord Uffe, shaded by the green branches, or crossed by the patches of
sunlight when they waved--the hall, a low building, old, with many
passages inside and far-away little rooms, and the one great
dining-chamber; built very stoutly. Around, in the edge of the forest,
were little houses of wood from which the smoke curled lazily up in the
spring air, and about which ran children playing while their happy-faced
mothers watched from the doorways. The sky was very blue, birds sang in
the trees, and about the fields hopped little hares.

We decided to build our hall, not a large one, but enough for us,
farther down the row of fields in a little point of great old trees that
ran out a little way toward the cleared place. Here with our axes we
hewed for many days, cutting great timbers and raising them upright
along the sides of our house-floor. Then came dragging of logs through
the forest and the laying them one on the other along the timbers for
the walls of the house an