Page:The Heimskringla; or, Chronicle of the Kings of Norway Vol 2.djvu/349

 KINGS OF NOKWAY. 341 went home again to the farm-house. A great many saga vn. beggars and poor people had followed both armies, who begged for meat ; and the evening after the battle many remained there, and sought lodging round about in all the houses, great or small. It is told of a blind man who was poor, that a boy attended him and led him. They went out around the farm to seek a lodging, and came to the same empty house, of which the door was so low that they had almost to creep in. Now when the blind man had come in, he fumbled about the floor seeking a place where he could lay himself down. He had a hat on his head, which fell down over his face when he stooped down. He felt with his hands that there was moisture on the floor, and he put up his wet hand to raise his hat, and in doing so put his fingers on his eyes. There came immediately such an itching in his eyelids, that he wiped the water with his fingers from his eyes, and went out of the hut, saying nobody could lie there it was so wet. When he came out of the hut he could distinguish his hands, and all that was near him, as far as things can be distinguished by sight in the darkness of night; and he went immediately to the farm-house into the room, and told all the people he had got his sight again, and could see every thing, although many knew he had been blind for a long time, for he had been there before going about among the houses of the neighbourhood. He said he first got his sight when he was coming out of a little ruin- ous hut which was all wet inside. " I groped in the water," said he, " and rubbed my eyes with my wet hands." He told where the hut stood. The people who heard him wondered much at this event, and spoke among themselves of what it could be that pro- duced it : but Thorgils the peasant and his son Grim thought they knew how this came to pass; and as they were much afraid the king's enemies might go there z 3