The Greatest World Classics Retold for Children. Гарриет Бичер-Стоу

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ dipped it into the blood and sprinkled the statues.

      "You shall taste of our sacrifice," he said. "Look kindly on us from your happy seats in Asgard."

      Then they went into the feast hall. There thralls were boiling the horseflesh in pots over the fire. The tables were standing ready before the benches. Ingolf walked to the high seat. All the others took their places at the benches. When the horns came round, Ingolf made this vow:

      "I vow that I will build my house wherever these pillars lead me."

      He put his hand upon a tall post that stood beside the high seat. There was one at each side. They were the front posts of the chair. But they stood up high, almost to the roof. They were wonderfully carved and painted with men and dragons. On the top of each one was a little statue of Thor with his hammer.

      At the end of the feast Ingolf had his thralls dig these pillars up. He had a little bronze chest filled with the earth that was under the altar.

      "I will take the pillars of my high seat to Iceland," he said, "and I will set up my altar there upon the soil of Norway, the soil that all my ancestors have trod, the soil that Thor loves."

      So they carried the pillars and the chest of earth and the statues of the gods, and put them into Ingolf's boat.

      "It is a well-packed ship," the men said. "There is no spot to spare."

      Tools, and chests of food, and tubs of drink, and chests of clothes, and fishing nets were stowed in the bows of both boats. In the bottom were laid some long, heavy, hewn logs.

      "The trees in Iceland are little," Ingolf said. "We must take the great beams for our homes with us."

      Standing on these logs were a few cattle and sheep and horses and pigs. The rowers' benches were along the sides. In the stern of each boat was a little cabin. Here the women and children were to sleep. But the men would sleep on the timbers in the middle of the boat and perhaps they would put up the awning sometimes.

      At last everyone was aboard. Men loosed the rope that held the boats. The ships flashed down the rollers into the water, and Ingolf and Leif were off for Iceland. As they sailed away everyone looked back at the shore of old Norway. There were tears in the women's eyes. Helga, Leif's wife, sang:

      "There was I born. There was I wed.

       There are my father's bones.

       There are the hills and fields,

       The streams and rocks that I love.

       There are houses and temples,

       Women and warriors and feasts,

       Ships and songs and fights—

       A crowded, joyous land.

       I go to an empty land."

      There was the same long voyage with storm and fog. But at last the people saw again the white cloud and saw it growing into land and mountains. Then Ingolf took the pillars of his high seat and threw them overboard.

      "Guide them to a good place, O Thor!" he cried.

      The waves caught them up and rolled them about. Ingolf followed them with his ship. But soon a storm came up. The men had to take down the sails and masts, and they could do nothing with their oars. The two ships tossed about in the sea wherever the waves sent them. The pillars drifted away, and Ingolf could not see them.

      "Remember your pillars, O Thor!" he cried.

      Then he saw that Leif's ship was being driven far off.

      "Ah, my foster-brother," he thought, "shall I not have you to cheer me in this empty land? O Thor, let him not go down to the caves of Ran! He is too good a man for that."

      On the next day the storm was not so hard, and Ingolf put in at a good harbor. A high rocky point stuck out into the sea. A broad bay with islands in the mouth was at the side. Behind the rocky point was a level green place with ice-mountains shining far back.

      After a day or two Ingolf said:

      "I will go look for my pillars."

      So he and a few men got into the rowboat and went along the shore and into all the fiords, but they could not find the pillars. After a week they came back, and Ingolf said:

      "I will build a house here to live in while I look for the posts. This way is uncomfortable for the women."

      So he did. Then he set out again to look for the pillars, but he had no better luck and came back.

      "I must stay at home and see to the making of hay and the drying of fish," he said. "Winter is coming on, and we must not be caught with nothing to eat."

      So he stayed and worked and sent two of his thralls to look for the holy posts. They came back every week or two and always had to say that they had not found them. Midwinter was coming on.

      "Ah!" said Ingolf's wife one day, "do you remember the gay feast that we had at Yule-time? All our friends were there. The house rang with song and laughter. Our tables bent with good things to eat. Walls were hung with gay draperies. The floor was clean with sweet-smelling pine-branches. Now look at this mean house; its dirt floor, its bare stone walls, its littleness, its darkness! Look at our long faces. No one here could make a song if he tried. Oh! I am sick for dear old Norway."

      "It is Thor's fault," Ingolf cried. "He will not let me find his posts."

      He strode out of the house and stood scowling at the gray sea.

      "Ah, foster-brother!" he said. "It was never so gloomy when you were by my side. Where are you now? Shall I never hear your merry laugh again? That spot in my palm burns, and my heart aches to see you. That arch of sod keeps rising before my eyes. Our vows keep ringing in my ears."

      At last the long, gloomy winter passed and spring came.

      "Cheer up, good wife," Ingolf said. "Better days are coming now."

      But that same day the thralls came back from looking for the posts.

      "We have bad news," they said. "As we walked along the shore looking for the pillars we saw a man lying on the shore. We went up to him. He was dead. It was Leif. Two well-built houses stood near. We went to them. We knew from the carving on the door-posts that they were Leif's. We went in. The rooms were empty. Along the shore and in the wood back of the house we found all of his men, dead. There was no living thing about."

      Ingolf said no word, but his face was white, and his mouth was set. He went into the house and got his spears and his shield and said to his men:

      "Follow me."

      They put provisions into the boat and pushed off and sailed until they saw Leif's houses on the shore of the harbor. There they saw Leif and the men who were his friends, dead. Their swords and spears were gone. Ingolf walked through the houses calling on Helga and on the thralls, but no one answered. The storehouse was empty. The rich hangings were gone from the walls of the houses. There was nothing in the stables. The boat was gone.

СКАЧАТЬ