So farewell."
He smiled round pleasantly, yet in that way which has a meaning at the
back of it; and at that every cap went off and the men did him reverence
as to a thane at least, and he nodded to them and came across to me.
"Come out into the fields, brother, for I shall weep if I bide here longer."
So he said; and we went away quickly, while the men gathered round the
old leader who was to be, and talked earnestly.
"This famine plays strange tricks with me," he said when we were away
from every one. "Did you hear all that I said?"
"I heard all, and you have spoken the best thing that could have been
said. Eight years have I been to this market, and a porters' guild is
just what is needed. And it will come about now."
"It was more dreaming, and so I must be a wise man in my dream. Even as
in the palace yesterday it came on me, and I seemed to be at the gate of
a great hall, and it was someone else that was speaking, and yet myself.
It is in my mind that I told these knaves what my lordly will was,
forsooth; and the words came to me in our old Danish tongue, so that it
was hard not to use it. But it seems to me that long ago I did these
things, or saw them, I know not which, somewhere. Tell me, did the king
live in our town across the sea?"
"No, but in another some way off. My father took me there once or twice.
Pages:
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141