surpass this."

And, indeed, in all the village round the vik there was not another
such a set of knitting needles.

But Ulf the Silent looked fearlessly up at Sigurd and said,

"Needles are women's tools. The son of a chief is worth a greater
price than that."

And Jarl Sigurd as he looked at him could think of nothing but of how
in his own young days he had caught a baby falcon, and of the scratchy
time he had in taming it. Yet, when he had taught it to love him in
its own fierce fashion, not one of his other good things pleased him
so well as his hawk. Perhaps here was another hawk as well worth
training.

As for Edith, she hugged her new gift over and over again; she was as
delighted a girl as ever stood on one foot because she was too happy
to stand on two, and finally off she rushed to show her treasure to
her mother.

She had dreams of prizes, too! Out in the flock there was a white
sheep which she called hers, since she had brought it up as a lamb
when its mother would not own it, as is sometimes the way with sheep--
silly things! It was shearing-time now and she wanted that wool.

Sheep-shearing is not an easy thing for a girl to do. But she got Ulf
to wash the animal under a near-by water-fall, and to tie its feet,
and after about a day of it she sheared it quite nicely; but it would