again.

"Thou art the man of men I long have hunted for!" Leif cried. "Let
your ship rest for a season;--or, better, let your longest-headed
seaman captain it for a voyage, trading, and come thou with me. Far to
the southward and westward lie rich timber lands. Where, we know not,
yet storm-driven ships have seen them. These I mean to find, and for
such a distant quest one ship is better than two."

So sunnily looked down the great man at the slighter one, so joyous at
the thought of that voyage into the mists of the southern seas that
Ulf--rover to the marrow--held out his hand in silence, and the
compact was made.

It did not take long to provision the craft, or to arrange other
matters. Soon they were surging once more across apparently boundless
seas. Three times they came to lands unknown to them, yet not the
country of great trees talked of by old sailors around the winter
fires. At last it loomed up in reality above the horizon, covered with
timber enough to build a great city,--more than ever was seen close at
hand by Northmen before. And right lustily swung the axes among them
for days and weeks, until even the keenest trader among them all was
contented with his share of wealth that was to come to him when once
back in Greenland. There were not lacking signs, either, that savage
neighbours might be unpleasant neighbours, as more than one stone-
headed arrow had whistled past, heralded by the first war-whoop that
ever was heard by ears of white men.

So, like a careful captain, Leif got his dried fish, his smoked deer-
meat, his water casks, and his lumber by degrees all on board; he lit