makes of me a child again!"

He tossed the fruit into their eager hands and began all at once to wipe
his eyes industriously upon the skirt of his robe. Swiftly the bunch
passed from hand to hand. Each time a juicy ball found its way down a
thirsty throat a great murmur of wonder and delight arose.

"There is more where this came from? Plenty, you say?" they inquired,
anxiously. And on being assured that hillside after hillside was covered
with bending wreaths of purple clusters, their rapture knew no bounds.

Ale was all well enough; but wine--! Not only would they live like kings
through the winter, but in the spring they would take back such a
treasure as would make their home-people stare even more than at the
timber and the wheat.

"You need have no fear concerning Leif's temper," Sigurd whispered in
Helga's ear. "This discovery makes his mission as sure of success as
though it were already accomplished. No man's nose rises at timber, but
two such miracles as wheat and grapes, planted without hands and growing
without care,--these can be nothing less than tokens of divine favor!
The Lucky One would spare his deadliest foe tonight."

"That sounds possible," Helga admitted, studying the chief's face
anxiously. As she looked, Leif's gaze suddenly met hers, and she had the
discomfort of seeing a recollection of their last encounter waken in his
eyes. Yet they did not darken to the blackness that had lowered from
them at the cliff. They took on more of an expression of quiet sarcasm.
Turning where the Norman stood, a silent witness of the scene, the chief
beckoned to him.

"A while ago, Robert Sans-Peur, I had it in my mind to run a sword
through you," he said, dryly. "But I have since bethought myself that
you are a guest on my hands; and also that it is right to take your
French breeding into account. Yet, though it may easily be a Norman
habit to look upon every fair woman with eyes of love, it is equally
contrary to Norse custom to permit it. Give yourself no further trouble
concerning my kinswoman, Robert of Normandy. Attach yourself to my
person and reserve your eloquence for my ear,--and my ear only."

CHAPTER XXVII

MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD

Middling wise
Should every man be,
Never too wise;
Happiest live
Those men
Who know many things well.
Ha'vama'l

They must have missed a great deal of enjoyment, to whom a new world
meant only a new source of gold and s