s, however, no uncertainty as to the disposition of the savages,
when, after a thorough inspection of the children, they took them to the
tents and set before them some boiled fish and roast venison.

Need we remark that, for the time, Olaf and Snorro forgot their sorrow?
It would scarcely be an exaggeration to say that Snorro was as ravenous
as any wolf in Vinland. From the day of his birth that well-cared-for
child had, four times a day, received regular nutriment in the form of
milk, bread, eggs, and other substances, and never once had he been
permitted to experience the _pangs_ of hunger, though the _intimations_
thereof were familiar. No wonder, then, that after an evening, a night,
and half a day of abstinence, he looked with a longing gaze on victuals,
and, when opportunity offered, devoured them desperately. Olaf, though
trained a little in endurance, was scarcely less energetic, for his
appetite was keen, and his fast had been unusually prolonged.

When they had eaten as much as they could--to the delight of the
natives, excepting, of course, the man with the temporary Roman nose--
they were ordered by signals, which even Snorro understood, to remain
still and behave themselves. Thereafter the natives struck their tents,
packed up their goods and chattels, embarked in sixteen large canoes,
and descended the rivulet a hundred yards or so to the spot where it
flowed into a large river. Here they turned the canoes upstream, and
silently but swiftly paddled away into the interior of the land.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

ANXIOUS TIMES--A SEARCH ORGANISED AND VIGOROUSLY CARRIED OUT.

It is not easy to conceive the state of alarm that prevailed in the
settlement of the Norsemen when it came to be known that little Snorro
and Olaf were lost. The terrible fact did not of course break on them
all at once.

For some hours after the two adventurers had left home, Dame Gudrid went
briskly about her household avocations, humming tunefully one of her
native Icelandic airs, and thinking, no doubt, of Snorro. Astrid,
assisted by Bertha, went about the dairy operations, gossiping of small
matters in a pleasant way, and, among other things, providing Snorro's
allowance of milk. Thora busied herself in the preparation of Snorro's
little bed; and Freydissa, whose stern nature was always softened by the
sight of the child, constructed, with elaborate care, a little coat for
Snorro's body. Thus Snorro's interests were bein