Some went to him, and were well received there, as we knew
long afterwards.
The man who had been washed overboard and hauled back at risk of his
neck was one of these. His name was Mord, and he would have stayed with
us; but my father thought it hard that he should not have some better
chance than we could give him here, for it was not easy to live at
first. Somewhat of the same kind he said to Arngeir, for he had heard of
this king when he had been in the king's new haven in the Wash some time
ago. But Arngeir would by no means leave the uncle who had been as a
father to him.
Now when we marked out the land that Witlaf gave us, there was a good
omen. My father set the four blue altar stones at each corner of the
land as the boundaries, saying that thus they would hallow all the
place, rather than make an altar again of them here where there was no
grove to shelter them, or, indeed, any other spot that was not open,
where a holy place might be. And when we measured the distances between
them a second time they were greater than at first, which betokens the
best of luck to him whose house is to be there. I suppose that they will
bide in these places now while Grimsby is a town, for, as every one
knows, it is unlucky to move a boundary stone.
Soon my father found a man who had some skill in the shipwright's craft,
and brought him to our place from Saltfleet.
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