But after that traders came and went,
and we heard naught of him except we asked for news; for he left us in
peace, if he knew that his enemy lived yet. Men said that he was not
much loved in Denmark.
So the town grew, and well did we prosper, so that there is naught to be
said of any more trouble, which is what my story seems to be made up of
so far. Yet we had come well through all at last; and that, I suppose,
is what makes the tale of any man worth hearing.
Twelve years went all well thus, and in those years Havelok came to
manhood, though not yet to his full strength. What that would be in a
few more summers none could tell, for he was already almost a giant in
build and power, so that he could lift and carry at once the four great
fish baskets, which we bore one at a time when full of fish, easily, and
it was he who could get a stranded boat afloat when we could hardly move
her between us, though all three of us were strong as we grew up.
Very handsome was Havelok also, and, like many very strong men, very
quiet. And all loved him, from the children who played along the water's
edge to the oldest dame in the town; for he had a good word for all, and
there was not one in the place whom he had not helped at one time or
another. More than one there was who owed him life--either his own, or
that of a child saved from the water.
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