Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/111

 KINGS OF NORWAY. 103 the foot a while. In the mean time the others in the saga yn. lodging awoke; and the king said to Thorarin, " I have been awake for a while, and have seen a sight which was worth seeing; and that is a man's foot so ugly that I do not think an uglier can be found in this merchant town." Thereupon he told the others to look at it, and see if it was not so ; and all agreed with the king. When Thorarin observed what they were talking about, he said, " There are few things for which you cannot find a match, and that may be the case here." The king says, " I would rather say that such another ugly foot cannot be found in the town, and I would lay any wager upon it." Then said Thorarin, " I am willing to bet that I shall find an uglier foot still in the town." The king — " Then he who wins shall have the right to get any demand from the other he chooses to make." " Be it so," said Thorarin. Thereupon he stretches out his other foot from under the bed-clothes, and it was in no way handsomer than the other, and more- over wanted the little toe. " There," said Thorarin, " see now, king, my other foot, which is so much uglier ; and, besides, has no little toe. Now I have won." The king replies, " That other foot was so much uglier than this one by having five ugly toes upon it, and this has only four ; and now I have won the choice of asking something from thee." " The sovereign's decision must be right," says Thorarin ; " but what does the king require of me?" " To take Rgerek," said the king, " to Greenland, and deliver him to Leif Ericsson." Thorarin replies, " I have never been at Green- land." The king — " Thou, who art a far-travelled man, h 4