SOME YEARS AGO I came upon the historical story of the discovery of America by Leif Ericsson in A Read Online Free PDF Page B

Beside him, Tyrker's mouth twitches with concealed laughter.)
    —It is a beautiful and gracious country. Our first crop ripens in March from the autumn sowing, and we get another in September off the same bit of land. One of our cows gave five hundred gallons of milk last year. We leave them out all through the winter, grazing.
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    A THINGMAN (Incredulously) How far southwards is this land?
    LEIF Five days' sailing from the latitude of this place, on the coast you come to first.
    A THINGMAN What is the name of this country where you live?
    LEIF We call it Greenland because it is so beautiful, and because the pastures are green all the year round.
    [ DISSOLVE TO:
    The Ship at Sea
    ( Leif is at the steering oar, with Tyrker by his side. Tyrker is laughing quietly.)
    LEIF What are you laughing at?
    TYRKER I was thinking of the yarn you told those elders back in Iceland. Green pastures all the year round! Crops in March! and the cow! ( Laughs ) And the cream of the joke is, they believed every word of it!
    LEIF (Seriously) Well, that's what Father told me to say. He said we wanted more people in our country, so that we'd produce more ivory and furs to fill the ship each year. If we couldn't fill the ship, he said, they wouldn't send it and we'd get no manufactured stuff at all.
    TYRKER You'll get all Iceland if you go on talking like that.
    [DISSOLVE TO: 44
    A Hall in Iceland
    ( The Thingmen are in conference at a table. )
    A THINGMAN There may be some truth in it, you know. Five days' sailing to the southwards is a good distance; you can go a long way in five days with a fair wind. I wouldn't say that it's impossible, by any means.
    ANOTHER We never get two crops from the same land, here in Iceland. I know such things do happen in more southerly countries. I agree—this thing wants looking into.
    ANOTHER (Doubtfully) I never heard of any cow giving milk like that.
    FIRST THINGMAN It does happen, if the pasture is good enough. We get over a gallon a day here, in the summer months. What I don't like about this story is that it all checks up so well. If these outlaws really have found a good land down to the south, we ought to take it in as part of our domain.
    ANOTHER What about the outlaws? What should we do with them?
    FIRST THINGMAN They could go somewhere else.
    A VERY OLD MAN I think we ought to send a ship there to see what the place is really like, and come back to report to us.
    A THINGMAN That's a good idea. Bjarni would be the man to send.
    ANOTHER Why Bjarni? He's awfully dumb.
    THINGMAN His father, Heriulf, went with Eric; Bjarni's always talking about going out to see his father.
    ANOTHER Do you think he's got enough sense for a job like this? We want a decent report.
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    THINGMAN He's a very good seaman, and that's the main thing. He hasn't got to do anything but come back here and tell us what he saw in their green land. We can ask his crew, too.
    ANOTHER Shall I go and find him?
    [CUT TO:
    The Same Hall in Iceland—Later
    (B jarni is seated at the table in conference with the elders. He is a middle-aged man with a clean-shaven face like a naval officer, with a bold chin. He is pleasant, but stupid; he speaks slowly and has difficulty in expressing himself. )
    BJARNI It's a bit late in the summer for going westwards. You ought to go that way in the spring.
    A THINGMAN Why is that?
    BJARNI Well, everybody goes west in the spring. It's not so easy later on in the summer, you see.
    THINGMAN But why? What makes it difficult to go westwards in the summer?
    BJARNI (Helplessly) Well, I mean—the ship won't go.
    THINGMAN (Patiently) But there's plenty of wind.
    BJARNI It makes the rowing so difficult, you see. And it's a very long way.
    ANOTHER THINGMAN Do you mean that you don't get a fair wind in the late summer?
    BJARNI That's right. That's just what I've been saying, but I never can make landsmen understand about the sea.
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    THINGMAN That's quite right. We always get westerly winds from June onwards. I should