It was slow work, to be sure; but then, one had plenty of time. Then,
too, it was such pretty work! One could have several little boats,
each laden with a differently coloured thread. By using two at a time,
going opposite ways, the cloth would have a "pepper-and-salt" mixture
of colour, as we call it now; or by using one for a time and then the
other, it would make broad stripes of colour, which was thought very
fine. Yet, after all, Edith Fairhair thought nothing could be prettier
than pure white--if only it was kept white. But, white or coloured,
she never tired watching the flying shuttles, as we call the little
boats to-day.

Meanwhile, all through the winter, merrily rang the smithy with clink
of hammer on heated steel. After that gift to Edith the Jarl told Ulf
he might take all the time he needed for his freedom-work; and he took
it. Pounds of steel needles had been made and stored away. He had
tried to remember all he ever heard about how to temper them, and he
already had learned to watch the glowing steel slowly change its
colour from dazzling white as it cooled to rose red, and at just the
right moment to plunge it into water. But he only tried it on one or
two bits, as yet, just to make sure he was right; and these utterly
astonished him by their hardness. No iron that he had ever seen was
like it. Of course he laid it all to the magic of the Star, as many a
warrior did in after years, not knowing that in that kind of iron
there is often a small mixture of nickel, such as our five-cent piece
is made of, and that steel made from such a mixture is harder and
tougher than any other kind. Bicycle-makers have found this out for
themselves, and know the reason of the toughness, but it was a great
mystery to Ulf.

It made him very happy, however; and blithely clinked his small hammer