The next day the king and his mother watched the boys at their play. The older two amused themselves by building barns, in which they put toy cows and sheep; but Harold launched mock boats on a pond and watched them drift away.
"What do you call them?" asked Olaf.
"Ships of war," said the boy.
"Good lad," answered the king; "the day will come when you will command real ships."
Calling the boys to him, he asked Guttorm, the oldest, what he most wished for.
"Land," said the boy.
"How much?"
"Enough to sow as much grain every summer as would cover the headland yonder."
Ten large farms covered the headland in question.
"And what do you most desire?" the king asked Halfdan.