solved to give a last grand feast to the
savages. He therefore called them together and explained, as he best
could, that he and his friends were going to leave them, but that
perhaps some of them might return again with large supplies of the gay
cloth and ornaments they were so fond of, and he recommended them in the
meantime to make as large a collection of furs as they could, in order
to be ready to trade when the white men returned. He then spread before
them the most sumptuous feast the land could provide, including a large
quantity of dairy produce, which the savages regarded as the most
luxurious of fare.

After the feast he presented Whitepow, Utway, and Powlet with a large
quantity of bright-coloured cloth and a few silver and iron ornaments,
to be distributed among the members of the tribe as they should see fit
after helping themselves. He also gave them a few cattle and domestic
fowls, after which, weighing anchors, putting out the oars, and hoisting
their sails, the Norsemen bade farewell to Leifsgaard. As they swept
round the point which shut it out from view, they gave vent to one
vigorous parting cheer, which was replied to by the savages with a
feeble imitation and a waving of arms.

Dropping down the river, they passed the spit of sand where the first
night in Vinland had been spent so pleasantly; caught an offshore breeze
that carried them swiftly beyond the island betwixt which and the shore
they had captured the whale, and finally leaped out upon the swell of
the great ocean.

"Aha! now am I at home," exclaimed Karlsefin, with heightened colour and
sparkling eyes, as he stood at the helm, and glanced from the bulging
sail to the heaving swell, where Thorward's _Dragon_ was bending over to
the breeze about a cable's length to leeward,--"Now am I at home once
more!"

"So am not I," murmured poor Bertha, whose white face betrayed the
miserable emotions--or commotions--within.

All the women, we may remark, had expressed a desire to keep together
during the voyage, hence they had embarked in the _Snake_, which was a
better sea-boat than Thorward's vessel.

"Of course _you_ are not at home. You are never contented or at home
anywhere!" cried Freydissa sharply.

Hake wished with all his heart that Bertha was at home in Scotland, and
that her home was his; and Snorro, who was seated on Olaf's knee, said--

"Never mind, Bert'a, oos be a tome soon."

There was a general laugh at this consolat