So Grim prospered and waxed rich fast, and in the spring of the year
wherein the story begins was getting the ship ready for the first cruise
of the season, meaning to be afloat early; for then there was less
trouble with the wild Norse Viking folk, for one cruise at least. Then
happened that which set all things going otherwise than he had planned,
and makes my story worth telling.
We---that is my father Grim, Leva my mother, my two brothers and
myself, and our two little sisters, Gunhild and Solva---sat quietly in
our great room, busy at one little thing or another, each in his way,
before the bright fire that burned on the hearth in the middle of the
floor. There was no trouble at all for us to think of more than that the
wind had held for several weeks in the southwest and northwest, and we
wondered when it would shift to its wonted springtide easting, so that
we could get the ship under way once more for the voyage she was
prepared for. Pleasant talk it was, and none could have thought that it
was to be the last of many such quiet evenings that had gone before.
Yet it seemed that my father was uneasy, and we had been laughing at him
for his silence, until he said, looking into the fire, "I will tell you
what is on my mind, and then maybe you will laugh at me the more for
thinking aught of the matter.
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