"You children may wonder why I tell you so much about the Norsemen coming to Iceland, but it is like the first step of a ladder. Perhaps you are getting tired, though, and do not wish to hear any more to-night."
"O no, we are not a bit tired, Uncle Sam," said both Lucy and her brother.
"Well, then, if Iceland was the first step toward America, Greenland was the second one.
"Some of the early settlers in Iceland were driven westward in a storm while they were out sailing. It was then that they first saw the rocky shores of Greenland.
"A good many years after this there was a certain man living in Iceland named Eric the Red. He did not get along very well with his neighbors and had many quarrels with them. He said to himself:
"'I will seek that land west of us and will make a home for myself there.'
"He sailed away from Iceland and was not heard of again for three years. When he came back on a visit, he spoke of the place where he had been living as 'Greenland.' He thought:
"'If I give it a good name, others will like to go there and settle.'"
"Now I know why it was called Greenland," said Lucy, laughing. "Whenever we sing 'From Greenland's Icy Mountains,' I always wonder about the name. I knew it must be a cold and icy land, because of the words of the hymn."
"Yes, that was the way of it. The name Greenland sounded very pleasant to the people of Iceland and a large company of them went back with Eric to settle among the icy mountains you sing about.