Yes, said Gudrun, papa sets great store by that hay. He cannot bear
to part with it at any price. That is his nature.

Tomorrow you must go, Jon told her, and try to win the old man over
in some way. I'd hate to be obliged to take the hay from him by
force, but that will be necessary if everything else fails.

The following day Gudrun went to see her father. The weather still
remained cold. When Gudrun dismounted before the house at Holl,
there was no one outside to greet her or announce her arrival, and
so she entered, going straight into the baðstofa. There she found
her father sitting on his bed, knitting a seaman's mitten, crooning
an old ditty the while:

Far from out the wilderness
Comes raging the cold wind;
And the bonds of heaven's king
It doth still tighter bind.

Gudrun leaned over her father and kissed him.

Is that you, Gunna dear? he asked.

Yes papa, she said, at the same time slipping a flask of brandy into
the bosom of his shirt.

This greatly pleased the old man.

Gunna dear, he said, you always bring me something to cheer me up.