"I named nine others and said:
"'And these shall follow your thralls in the same way. Now, am I not careful to make your time go merrily?'
"So I set guards over every one in that house. Not once all that winter did they stir out of sight of some of us. So no tales got out to the neighbors. Besides, it was a lonely place, and by good luck no one came that way. Oh! that was fat and easy living.
"Well, after we had been there for a long time, Hakon came in to the feast one night and said:
"'I heard a cuckoo to-day!'
"'It is the call to go a-viking,' I said.
"All my men put their hands to their mouths and shouted. Their eyes danced. Big Thorleif stood up and stretched himself.
"'I am stiff with long sitting,' he said. 'I itch for a fight.'
"I turned to the farmer.
"'This is our last feast with you,' I said.