Page:Round the Yule Log.djvu/73

Rh inside, that he was quite taken aback. He had never seen any- thing like It before. The table was covered with the most splendid dishes, sea perch and sour cream, venison and cod-liver stew with treacle and cheese, heaps of cakes, brandy, beer and mead, in fact, everything that was good. Isaac ate and drank as much as he was able, but still his plate never became empty, and although he drank a good deal, his glass was always full. The old man did not eat much, and he did not speak much either ; but just as they were sitting, they heard a scream and a great noise outside. The old man went out, and soon came back with his three sons. Isaac felt just a little queer when they came in, but the old man must have been telling them to behave themselves, for they were kind and pleasant enough. They said he must follow their custom and sit down and drink with them, for Isaac was going to leave the table ; he had been doing very well, he said. But he did as they wished, and they drank glass after glass, and now and then they took a pull at the beer and the mead. They became good friends and got on very well together. Isaac must go fishing a trip or two with them, they said, so that he could have something to take home with him when he went away. The first trip they made was in a terrible gale. One of the sons was steering, the other held the sheet, and the third son was 'midships, while Isaac bailed out the water with a big scoop until the perspiration ran down his back in big drops. They sailed as if they were stark mad ; they never took in a reef in the sail, and when the seas filled the boat, they sailed her up on the back of a wave till she stood nearly on end, the water rushing out over her stem as out of a spout. Shortly the storm abated, and they commenced to fish. The fish were so thickly packed, that the lead could not reach the bottom. The young men from Udrost hauled in one fish after another, and Isaac had also plenty of bites, but he had brought his own fishing tackle with him, and every time he got a fish as far as the gunwale it got off ; he did not catch as much as the tail of one. When the boat was full, they sailed home to Udrost. The sons cut up the fish, and cleaned them and hung them up across some poles to E