Page:The Early Kings of Norway.djvu/133

 b REIGN OF KING OLAF THE SAINT. 123 " Ho, ho ! '* said Olaf ; but it is I wlio have gained the bet. The less of an ugly thing the less ugly, not the more ! '* Loyal Thorarin respectfully submitted. " What is to be my penalty, then ? The king it is that must decide." "To take mo that wicked old Baerik to Leif Ericson in Greenland." Which the Icelander did ; leaving two vacant seats henceforth at Olaf 's table. Leif Ericson, son of Erie discoverer of America, quietly managed Kaerik henceforth ; sent him to Iceland, — I think to father Eric himself; certainly to some safe hand there, in whose house, or in some still quieter neighbouring lodging, at his own choice, old Kaerik spent the last three years of his life in a perfectly quiescent manner. Olaf's struggles in the matter of religion had actually settled that question in Norway. By these rough methods of his, whatever we may think of them, Heathenism had got itself smashed dead ; and was no more heard of in that country. Olaf himself was evidently a highly devout and pious man ; — who-