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"What thinkest thou of the dream?" said Herfrida to a wrinkled old crone who sat on a low stool beside the fire. The witch-like old creature roused herself a little and said: "Good luck is in store for the boy." "Thanks for that, granny," said Alric; "canst say what sort o' good luck it is?" "No; my knowledge goes no further.
Why, the beautiful cloths, and gold and jewels, that are so plentiful in the dale, would never have delighted our eyes if our men had not gone on viking cruise, and fallen in with those rich traders from the far south lands. Besides, war makes our men brisk and handsome." "Aye," exclaimed Alric, laughing, "especially when they get their noses cut off and their cheeks gashed!"
"Come," said he, putting his arm within that of his stout son, "let us turn into the wood awhile. I would converse with thee on this matter." "Alric is ready to start with the token," said Erling. "I know it, my son. Let him sup first; the women will care well for him, for they will guess the work that lies before him.
He thought that if it had struck two inches lower, with a little more force, he should have looked as the man in the woods did, whom Alric had killed. He plucked the shaft from the stiff cloth with some difficulty, and, barely glancing at it, tossed it away.
"It was a good arrow," answered Alric, thoughtfully. "I carried it two years and made it very sharp. It is a pity the man broke the shaft with his head when he fell, and I would have cut off the steel point to use it again, but I heard footsteps and ran away, lest I should be taken for a thief." "It was well shot," said Gilbert, and he went in.
It is no disparagement to Alric to say that, when he found himself suddenly face to face with this man, his mouth opened as wide as did his eyes, that the colour fled from his cheeks, that his heart fluttered like a bird in a cage, and that his lips and tongue became uncommonly dry!
This was Erling's little brother Alric a lad whose bosom was kept in a perpetual state of stormy agitation by the conflict carried on therein between a powerful tendency to fun and mischief, and a strong sense of the obedience due to parents. "I will go," said the boy eagerly, holding out his hand for the token. "Thou, my son?" said Haldor, regarding him with a look of ill-suppressed pride.
"Whom didst thou serve under, Kettle, before we brought thee to Norway?" asked Alric. "Under the King of Dublin," replied Kettle. "Was he a great king?" "A great king? Aye, never was there a greater; and a great king he is yet, if he's alive, though I have my own fears on that point, for he was taking badly to ale when I left."
There was something in the rugged grandeur of the scenery here, in the whiteness of the snow, the blackness of the rocks which peeped out from its voluminous wreaths, the lightness of the atmosphere, and, above all, the impressive silence, which possessed an indescribable charm for the romantic mind of Alric, and which induced even the stern matter-of-fact Glumm to tread with slower steps, and to look around him with a feeling almost akin to awe.
Yet of all men, Gilbert Warde had fought best and most, and in so far as bodily peril was counted, none had lived through so much as he; for many of his companions had been killed beside him, and others had taken their place, and even his man Dunstan had been wounded twice, and little Alric once, and many horses had been killed under him, but he himself was untouched, even after the great battle in the valley; and there were honours for him whenever he was seen.
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