leaned forward, and the shadows of the leaves slipped and slid upon his
chain-mail.

'"I ploughed the land with horses,
But my heart was ill at ease,
For the old sea-faring men
Came to me now and then
With their Sagas of the Seas."'

His hand fell on the hilt of the great sword. 'This is truth,' he cried,
'for so did it happen to me,' and he beat time delightedly to the tramp
of verse after verse.

'"And now the land," said Othere,
"Bent southward suddenly,
And I followed the curving shore,
And ever southward bore
Into a nameless sea."'

'A nameless sea!' he repeated. 'So did I--so did Hugh and I.'

'Where did you go? Tell us,' said Una.

'Wait. Let me hear all first.' So Dan read to the poem's very end.

'Good,' said the knight. 'That is Othere's tale--even as I have heard
the men in the Dane ships sing it. Not in those same valiant words, but
something like to them.'

'Have you ever explored North?' Dan shut the book.