"Howmany would you like?" "Enough," said the child, "to eat up all the cowsand crops of my brothers at a single meal." Then the king laughed, andsaid to the mother of the children, "You are bringing up a king."As the boys grew, Leif and Harald were ever fond of roaming, while Biornwished to live on the farm at peace. Their sister Freydis went with theolder boys and urged them on. She was not gentle and amiable, but full ofenergy and courage: she was also quarrelsome and vindictive. People saidof her that even if her brothers were all killed, yet the race of Erik theRed would not end while she lived; that "she practised more of shootingand the handling of sword and shield than of sewing or embroidering, andthat as she was able, she did evil oftener than good; and that when shewas hindered she ran into the woods and slew men to get their property."She was always urging her brothers to deeds of daring and adventure. Oneday they had been hawking, and when they let slip the falcons, Harald'sfalcon killed two blackcocks in one flight and three in another. The dogsran and brought the birds, and he said proudly to the others, "It will belong before most of you have any such success," and they all agreed tothis. He rode home in high spirits and showed his birds to his sisterFreydis. "Did any king," he asked, "ever make so great a capture in soshort a time?" "It is, indeed," she said, "a good morning's hunting tohave got five blackcocks, but it was still better when in one morning aking of Norway took five kings and subdued all their kingdoms.
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