as he worked away, weaving a strange kind of cloth that was not made
of soft wool, nor was it woven in a loom with flashing shuttle.
Instead, inch by inch of it, as it grew, was thrust into the glowing
coals and heated; first in the shape of slender steel needles, which
were cut off and twisted into tiny rings, dozens of them; then these
were hooked into each other, ring into ring, and hammered while still
hot till each was solid, and as though it had never been straight in
its life or anything else but a ring, without beginning or end. Then
came the great thing--the tempering. How anxiously he watched it! How
carefully he blew the fire as the strip of iron cloth lay in the
coals! Then what a hissing it made and what a shout of triumph Ulf
gave when at last the perfect temper was reached and the strip was
bubbling the water! Many such strips lay piled in a dry place before
spring came, and with it the time for joining them all together.

It was a great day for the young folks of the vik when the contest was
to be decided. Half-a-dozen longships of other jarls happened to be in
port at the time and Jarl Sigurd was not sorry to let his visitors see
what his young people could do. Wonderfully well made were many of the
trials. One boy showed a bow of two great horns joined together, which
only Thorolf the Strong could bend. Another showed an oxhorn, with the
tip cut off and ornamented, and the whole horn carved in spiral
grooves; and raising it to his lips he blew a blast that could be
heard a mile! There seemed to be as many different things as there
were boys and girls to make them; and Jarl Sigurd was pleased indeed
when the other jarls with one voice said that among the works of the
girls the finest and most useful of all was a snow-white garment like
a knitted jersey, made from the sheep's wool by Edith Fairhair. How
her cheeks glowed bright red, and how bright her eyes shone, when she
had to wear it before them and say who made it! What was the value of