The Norsemen in the West

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  GREENLAND AGAIN--FLATFACE TURNS UP, ALSO THORWARD, WHO BECOMES ELOQUENTAND SECURES RECRUITS FOR VINLAND.

  Who has not heard of that solitary step which lies between the sublimeand the ridiculous? The very question may seem ridiculous. And who hasnot, at one period or another of life, been led to make comparisons tothat step? Why then should we hesitate to confess that the step inquestion has been suggested by the brevity of that other step which liesbetween the beautiful and the plain, the luxuriant and the barren, thefruitful and the sterile--which step we now call upon the reader totake, by accompanying us from Vinland's shady groves to Greenland'srocky shores.

  Leif Ericsson is there, standing on the end of the wharf at Brattalid--bold, stalwart, and upright, as he was when, some years before, heopened up the way to Vinland. Flatface the Skraelinger is there too--stout, hairy, and as suggestive of a frying-pan as he was when, onmurderous deeds intent, not very long before, he had led his hairyfriends on tiptoe to the confines of Brattalid, and was made almost toleap out of his oily skin with terror.

  But his terror by this time was gone. He and the Norsemen had beenreconciled, very much to the advantage of both, and his tribe was, justthen, encamped on the other side of the ridge.

  Leif had learned a little of the Skraelinger tongue; Flatface hadacquired a little less of the Norse language--and a pretty mess theymade of it between them! As we are under the necessity of renderingboth into English, we beg the reader's forbearance and consideration.

  "So you are going off on a sealing expedition, are you?" said Leif,turning from the contemplation of the horizon, and regarding theSkraelinger with a comical smile.

  "Yis, yo, ha, hooroo!" said Flatface, waving his arms violently to addforce to his reply.

  "And when do you go?" asked Leif.

  "W'en? E go skrumch en cracker smorrow."

  "Just so," replied Leif, "only I can't quite make that cracker outunless you mean _to-morrow_."

  "Yis, yo, ha!" exclaimed the hairy man. "Kite right, kite right,smorrow, yis, to-morrow."

  "You're a wonderful man," remarked Leif, with a smile. "You'll speakNorse like a Norseman if you live long enough."

  "Eh!" exclaimed the Skraelinger, with a perplexed look.

  "When are you to be back?" asked Leif.

  Flatface immediately pointed to the moon, which, although it was broaddaylight at the time, showed a remarkably white face in the blue sky,and, doubling his fist, hit himself four blows on the bridge of hisnose, or rather on the spot where the bridge of that feature should havebeen, but where, as it happened, there was only a hollow in thefrying-pan, with a little blob below it.

  "Ha, four months. Very good. It will be a good riddance; for, to saytruth, I'm tired of you and your noisy relations."

  Leif said this more as a soliloquy than a remark, for he had nointention of hurting the feelings of the poor savage, who, he was aware,could not understand him. Turning again to him, he said--"You know thekitchen, Flatface?" Flatface said nothing, but rolled his eyes, noddedviolently, and rubbed that region which is chiefly concerned with food.

  "Go," said Leif, "tell Anders to give you food--food--food!"

  At each mention of the word Flatface retreated a step and nodded. WhenLeif stopped he turned about, and with an exclamation of delight,trundled off to the kitchen like a good-natured polar bear.

  For full half an hour after that Leif walked up and down the wharf withhis eyes cast down; evidently he was brooding over something. PresentlyAnders came towards him.

  Anders was a burly middle-aged Norseman, with a happy-lookingcountenance; he was also cook, steward, valet, and general factotum toLeif.

  "Well, Anders, hast had a visit from Flatface?" asked Leif.

  "Ay--he is in the kitchen now."

  "Hast fed him?"

  "Ay, gorged him," replied Anders, with a grin.

  "Good," said Leif, laughing; "he goes off to-morrow, it seems, for fourmonths, which I'm right glad to hear, for we have had him and hiskindred long enough beside us for this time. I am sorry on account ofthe Christian teachers, however, because they were making some progresswith the language, and this will throw them back."

  Leif here referred to men who had recently been sent to Greenland byKing Olaf Tryggvisson of Norway, with the design of plantingChristianity there, and some of whom appeared to be very anxious toacquire the language of the natives. Leif himself had kept somewhataloof from these teachers of the new faith. He had indeed sufferedhimself to be baptized, when on a visit to Norway, in order to pleasethe King; but he was a very reserved man, and no one knew exactly whatopinions he held in regard to religion. Of course he had beenoriginally trained in the Odin-worship of his forefathers, but he was aremarkably shrewd man, and people said that he did not hold by it verystrongly. No one ever ventured to ask him what he held until theteachers above mentioned came. When they tried to find out his opinionshe quietly, and with much urbanity, asked to be informed as to some ofthe details of that which they had come to teach, and so managed theconversation that, without hurting their feelings, he sent them awayfrom him as wise as they came. But although Leif was silent he was veryobservant, and people said that he noted what was going on keenly--whichwas indeed the case.

  "I know not what the teachers think," said Anders, with a careless air,"but it is my opinion that they won't make much of the Skraelingers, andthe Skraelingers are not worth making much of."

  "There thou art wrong, Anders," said Leif, with much gravity; "does notFlatface love his wife and children as much as you love yours?"

  "I suppose he does."

  "Is not his flesh and blood the same as thine, his body as well knittogether as thine, and as well suited to its purposes?"

  "Doubtless it is, though somewhat uglier."

  "Does he not support his family as well as thou dost, and labour moreseverely than thou for that purpose? Is he not a better hunter, too,and a faster walker, and fully as much thought of and prized by hiskindred?"

  "All that may be very true," replied Anders carelessly.

  "Then," pursued Leif, "if the Skraelingers be apparently as good as thouart, how can ye say that they are not worth making much of?"

  "Truly, on the same ground that I say that I myself am not worth makingmuch of. I neither know nor care anything about the matter. Only thisam I sure of, that the Skraelingers do not serve you, master, as well asI do."

  "Anders, thou art incorrigible!" said Leif, smiling; "but I admit thetruth of your last remark; so now, if ye will come up to the house anddo for me, to some extent, what ye have just done to Flatface, ye willadd greatly to the service of which thou hast spoken."

  "I follow, master," said Anders; "but would it not be well, first, towait and see which of our people are returning to us, for, if I mistakenot, yonder is a boat's sail coming round the ness."

  "A _boat's_ sail!" exclaimed Leif eagerly, as he gazed at the sail inquestion; "why, man, if your eyes were as good as those of Flatface, yewould have seen that yonder sail belongs to a ship. My own eyes havebeen turned inward the last half hour, else must I have observed itsooner."

  "It seems to me but a boat," said Anders.

  "I tell thee it is a ship!" cried Leif; "ay, and if my eyes do notdeceive, it is the ship of Karlsefin. Go, call out the people quickly,and see that they come armed. There is no saying who may be inpossession of the ship now."

  Anders hastened away, and Leif, after gazing at the approaching vessel alittle longer, walked up to the house, where some of his house-carlswere hastily arming, and where he received from the hands of an oldfemale servant his sword, helmet, and shield.

  The people of Brattalid were soon all assembled on the shore, anxiouslyawaiting the arrival of the ship, and an active boy was sent round toHeriulfness, to convey the news to the people there--for in Greenlandthe arrival of a ship was of rare occurrence in those days.

  As the ship drew near, all doubt as to her being Karlsefin's vessel
wasremoved, and, when she came close to land, great was the anxiety of thepeople to make out the faces that appeared above the bulwarks.

  "That is Karlsefin," said one. "I know his form of face well."

  "No, it is Biarne," cried another. "Karlsefin is taller by half afoot."

  "'Tis Thorward," said a third. "I'd know his face among a thousand."

  "There seem to be no women with them," observed Anders, who stood at theend of the wharf near his master.

  "Does any one see Olaf?" asked Leif.

  "No--no," replied several voices.

  When the ship was near enough Leif shouted--"Is Olaf on board?"

  "No!" replied Thorward, in a stentorian voice.

  Leif's countenance fell.

  "Is all well in Vinland?" he shouted.

  "All is well," was the reply.

  Leif's countenance brightened, and in a few minutes he was shakingThorward heartily by the hand.

  "Why did ye not bring my son?" said Leif, somewhat reproachfully, asthey went up to the house together.

  "We thought it best to try to induce you to go to him rather than bringhim to you," answered Thorward, smiling. "You must come back with me,Leif. You cannot conceive what a splendid country it is. It farsurpasses Iceland and Norway. As to Greenland, it should not be namedin the same breath."

  Leif made no reply at that time, but seemed to ponder the proposal.

  "Now we shall feast, Thorward," said Leif, as he entered the hall. "Ho!lay the tables, good woman.--Come, Anders, see that ye load it well.Have all the house-carls gathered; I will go fetch in our neighbours,and we shall hear what Thorward has to say of this Vinland that we haveheard so much about of late."

  Leif's instructions were promptly and energetically carried out. Thetables were spread with all the delicacies of the season that Greenlandhad to boast of, which consisted chiefly of fish and wild-fowl, withseal's flesh instead of beef, for nearly all the cattle had been carriedoff by the emigrants, as we have seen, and the few that were left behindhad died for want of proper food. The banquet was largely improved byThorward, who loaded the table with smoked salmon. After the dishes hadbeen removed and the tankards of beer sent round, Thorward began torelate his story to greedy ears.

  He was very graphic in his descriptions, and possessed the power ofdetailing even commonplace conversations in such a way that they becameinteresting. He had a great deal of quiet humour, too, which frequentlyconvulsed his hearers with laughter. In short, he gave such afascinating account of the new land, that when the people retired torest that night, there was scarcely a man, woman, or child among themwho did not long to emigrate without delay. This was just what Thorwarddesired.

  Next day he unloaded the ship, and the sight of her cargo fullyconfirmed many parts of his story. The upshot of it was that Leifagreed to go and spend the winter in Vinland, and a considerable numberof married men made up their minds to emigrate with their wives andfamilies.

  Having discharged cargo and taken in a large supply of such goods aswere most needed at the new colony, Thorward prepared for sea. Leifplaced Anders in charge of his establishment, and, about grey dawn of abeautiful morning, the _Snake_ once again shook out her square sail tothe breeze and set sail for Vinland.