Harald was to command.

He had already made trips in just such vessels with his father; had
learned to attack the enemy with arrow and spear; also with stones thrown
down from above, and with grappling-irons to clutch opposing boats. He had
learned to swim, from early childhood, even in the icy northern waters,
and he had been trained in swimming to hide his head beneath his floating
shield, so that it could not be seen. He had learned also to carry tinder
in a walnut shell, enclosed in wax, so that no matter how long he had been
in the water he could strike a light on reaching shore. He had also
learned from his father acts of escape as well as attack. Thus he had once
sailed on a return trip from Denmark after plundering a town; the ships
had been lying at anchor all night in a fog, and at sunlight in the
morning lights seemed burning on the sea. But Erik the Red said, "It is a
fleet of Danish ships, and the sun strikes on the gilded dragon crests;
furl the sail and take to the oars." They rowed their best, yet the Danish
ships were overtaking them, when Erik the Red ordered his men to throw
wood overboard and cover it with Danish plunder. This made some delay, as
the Danes stopped to pick it up, and in the same way Erik the Red dropped
his provisions, and finally his prisoners; and in the delay thus caused he
got away with his own men.

But now Harald was not to go to Denmark, but to the new western world,
the Wonderstrands which Leif had sought and had left without sufficient
exploration. First, however, he was to call at Greenland, which his father
had first discovered. It was the custom of the Viking explorers, when they
reached a new country, to throw overboard their "seat posts," or
_setstokka_,--the curved part of their doorways,--and then to land
where they floated ashore. But Erik the Red had lent his to a friend and
could not get them back, so that he sailed in search of them, and came to