here, and indeed with Gunnar and Sigurd to guard the land we had had
peace for many a long year on our own coasts, if other lands had had to
fear them. My father laughed a little, saying that perhaps it was so,
and then my mother took the two little ones and went with them into the
sleeping room to put them to rest, while I and my two brothers went out
to the cattle garth to see that all was well for the night.

Then, when our eyes were used to the moonlight, which was not very
bright, away to the northward we saw a red glow that was not that of the
sunset or of the northern lights, dying down now and then, and then
again flaring up as will a far-off fire; and even as we looked we heard
the croak of an unseen raven flying thitherward overhead.

"Call father," I said to Withelm, who was the youngest of us three. The
boy ran in, and presently my father came out and looked long at the glow
in the sky.

"Even as I thought," he said. "The king's town is burning, and I must go
to tell the jarl. Strange that we have had no message. Surely the king's
men must be hard pressed if this is a foe's work."

So he went at once, leaving us full of wonder and excited, as boys will
be at anything that is new and has a touch of fear in it. But he had
hardly gone beyond the outbuildings when one came running and calling
him. The jarl had sent for him, for there was strange news from the
king. Then he and this messenger hastened off together.

In half an hour the war horns were blowing fiercely, and all the quiet
town was awake, for my father's forebodings were true, and the foe was
on us. In our house my mother was preparing the food that her husband