"Good dame, may we have a drink of fresh milk? We are two travelers, and will pay for what we take."
"Welcome, friends!" replied the woman. "Enter and I will get some milk and bread."
While she was away, Olaf and Sigurd washed their hands at the well beside the house, and entering again, the King took up a towel that was lying on the table, and dried his hands on it. At that moment the woman returned, and snatched the towel from his hand.
"It is easy to see that you have not been brought up very well, and have been taught little good," she cried angrily. "Know you not that it is wasteful to wet all the towel at once?"
Olaf responded, soberly, "Well, well, mayhap I shall still rise in the world so high that I may dry my hands in the middle of the towel!" Sigurd was bursting with laughter, and at this reply he could hold in no longer, and the woman looked furiously at him.
They drank their milk, and the coin that Olaf handed the woman somewhat appeased her. "Tell me," he asked, "do you know where Jarl Hakon is?"
"Last night he was in hiding, my son told me."
"In hiding! What mean you?" exclaimed the King.
"Why, whence come you that you know not? Within the last few months Hakon has become so cruel and tyrannical that there is no living with him; two days ago his exactions in Gauladale caused the bonders to rise against him, under Orm Lugg. They separated the Jarl from his ships and drove him into the forest, no one knows where. My son told me last night, ere he crossed the Firth to join the bonders, that they were going to look for him at the home of Thora of Rimul, a great lady who is a relative of the Jarls."
"Well, well!" said the King, as they hastily returned to the ships. "Think you not that heaven is with me, Fairhair? Here I come to Norway at the very moment when Hakon has goaded the bonders to rise in revolt; I find him cut off from his men and ships, driven a fugitive into the forests, mayhap slain by this time! Come, let us make all haste to cross the Firth and arrive at Gauladale."