his comrades to come carefully into the tent, and not to press
forward, and that he who came last in should go out first. Leif
went in first, followed by Karl, and then his comrades; and all
fully armed as if they were going into battle. Leif went into
the black tent and asked if Thrand was there. Thrand answered
and saluted Leif. Leif returned his salutation, and asked if he
had brought the scat from the northern islands, and if he would
pay the scat that had been collected. Thrand replies, that he
had not forgotten what had been spoken of between him and Karl,
and that he would now pay over the scat. "Here is a purse, Leif,
full of silver, which thou canst receive." Leif looked around,
and saw but few people in the tent, of whom some were lying upon
the benches, and a few were sitting up. Then Leif went to
Thrand, and took the purse, and carried it into the outer tent,
where it was light, turned out the money on his shield, groped
about in it with his hand, and told Karl to look at the silver.
When they had looked at it a while, Karl asked Leif what he
thought of the silver. He replied, "I am thinking where the bad
money that is in the north isles can have come from." Thrand
heard this, and said, "Do you not think, Leif, the silver is
good?" "No," says he. Thrand replies, "Our relations, then, are
rascals not to be trusted. I sent them in spring to collect the
scat in the north isles, as I could not myself go anywhere, and
they have allowed themselves to be bribed by the bondes to take
false money, which nobody looks upon as current and good; it is
better, therefore, Leif, to look at this silver which has been
paid me as land-rent." Leif thereupon carried back this silver,
and received another bag, which he carried to Karl, and they
looked over the money together. Karl asked Leif what he thought
of this money. He answered, that it appeared to him so bad that
it would not be taken in payment, however little hope there might
be of getting a debt paid in any other way: "therefore I will not
take this money upon the king's account." A man who had been
lying on the bench now cast the skin coverlet off which he had
drawn over his head, and said, "True is the old word, -- he grows
worse who grows older: so it is with thee, Thrand, who allowest
Karl Morske to handle thy money all the day." This was Gaut the
Red. Thrand sprang up at Gaut's words, and reprimanded his
relation with many angry words. At last he said that Leif should
leave this silver, and take a bag which his own peasants had
brought him in spring. "And although I am weak-sighted, yet my
own hand is the truest test." Another man who was lying on the
bench raised himself now upon his elbow; and this was Thord the
Low. He said, "These are no ordinary reproaches we suffer from
Karl Morske, and therefore he well deserves a reward for them."
Leif in the meantime took the bag, and carried it to Karl; and
when they cast their eyes on the money, Leif said, "We need not
look long at this silver, for here the one piece of money is
better than the other; and this is the money we will have. Let a
man come to be present at the counting it out." Thrand says that
he thought Leif was the fittest man to do it upon his account.
Leif and Karl thereupon went a short way from the tent, sat down.
and counted and weighed the silver. Karl took the helmet off his
head, and received in it the weighed silver. They saw a man
coming to them who had a stick with an axe-head on it in his
hand, a hat low upon his head, and a short green cloak. He was
bare-legged, and had linen breeches on tied at the knee. He laid
his stick down in the field, and went to Karl and said, "Take