There was no further visitation from the savages for some time. The
leaves fell, the nights grew short, and there came a spell of cold; but
if this were winter it was one which no Greenlander could fear. The
sky was blue, the sun warm on the skin; there was no snow, and the
frost a mere white rime which melted in an hour. Their cattle never
failed of feed, and as for themselves, they had so well harvested the
wild wheat and the grapes that they had nothing to fear.
The winter, to call it so, was well advanced before the savages came;
but one day they were reported in large numbers on the lake, and
Karlsefne gave orders how they were to be received. None were to be
let inside the stockade; all the men were to have their weapons; such
stuff as they had for barter was to be held up from within the defences
and thrown over in exchange. He himself with a few of the best men
should stand in the entry.
Now while they were waiting for the savages and could still see some of
them out on the water, while others were disembarking on the shore,
Gudrid was sitting just inside the door of her house with her child
asleep on her lap. She sat full in the sun, and was quiet and happy,
as she generally was. Presently there passed a dark shadow across the
open door. Gudrid looked up quickly. A woman stood there inside the
pillars of the porch and looked fixedly at her. She was dressed in
black, drawn very tightly across her; she was about Gudrid's own
height, and had a ribbon over her hair--which was of a light-brown
colour, and not coarse as most of the savages' was. She was a pale,
grave woman, and had the biggest eyes Gudrid had ever seen. They were
wide open, grey, and had a world of sorrow in them. Gudrid was not at
all afraid, because she thought the woman looked too sad to be wicked
or ill-disposed; besides, she did not believe that any one could be
ill-disposed to her. So she smiled up in her face and waited for her
to speak.
When she did speak it did not seem at all remarkable that she should be
perfectly understood. "What is your name?" she said plainly.