comes it that no grass or bushes stick up through the snow? And
why do we see no rivers and streams, which elsewhere are wont to
draw their black furrows through the white fields even in the
hardest frost?"

Torarin was delighted with these fancies, and Grim too found
pleasure in them. He did not move from his place on the load, but
lay still and blinked.

But just as Torarin had finished speaking he drove past a lofty
pole to which a broom was fastened.

"If we were strangers here, Grim, my dog," said Torarin, "we might
well ask ourselves what sort of heath this was, where they set up
such marks as we use at sea. 'This can never be the sea itself?'
we should say at last. But we should think it utterly impossible.
This that lies so firm and fast, can this be only water? And all
the rocky knolls that we see so firmly united, can they be only
holms and skerries parted by the rolling waves? No, we should
never believe it was possible, Grim, my dog."

Torarin laughed and Grim still lay quiet and did not stir. Torarin
drove on, until he rounded a high knoll. Then he gave a cry as
though he had seen something strange. He put on an air of great
surprise, dropped the reins and clapped his hands.

"Grim, my dog, so you would not believe this was the sea! Now you
can tell what it is. Stand up, and then you will see that there is
a big ship lying before us! You would not recognize the beacons,
but this you cannot mistake. Now I think you will not deny that