me. Yet when I asked why he wrote those first words, he only
laughed, saying, "That you will know some day, as I think."

Now if I were to write all that went on until August came, I should
speak of little but how the jarl and I were never apart; for though
he was so much older than myself, I grew to be his fast friend. And
many a long day did I spend with him in his boat, learning somewhat
of his skill in handling her, both on river, and broad, and sea.
Very pleasant those days were, and they went all too soon.

No ship came in that could help him homewards, and though the
Danish host was in Northumbria, he cared not to go there, for his
sons were gone home. And Eadmund would fain see more of him, so
that, although I would willingly have taken our ship across the
seas, for the first time, to his place, he would not suffer me to
do so; for he said that he was not so restless here with us, and
that his sons and Osritha, his daughter, had doubtless long thought
him dead.

Now in June the king had gone to Framlingham, and in August came
back to Thetford. Then he sent for my father, begging him to bring
Lodbrok with him, that together they might hunt over the great
heaths that stretch for many a mile north and west and south of the
town. No better sport is there for hawk and hound than on Brandon
and Croxton heaths, and the wilds to which our Saxon Icklings and
Lakings have given their names, for they stretch from forest to
fen, and there is no game in all England that one may not find
there, from red deer to coney, wolf to badger, bustard to snipe,
while there are otter and beaver in the streams.