Mayhap it was a lucky day for him also, for sooner or later I should have got adrift, and then you would not have been looking on to hold me from paying him somewhat more than a beating." Next day was the last of the fair, and again I went to seek a horse, with my new follower after me.

There was less choice but more quiet, and soon I found that Erling knew more of the points of a steed than I did.

A Dane is a born horse dealer.

So I sent him one way while I went another, and when I was almost despairing of finding what I thought would suit me, he came in search of me, leading a great skew-bald horse, bright brown and white in broad splashes all over him, in no sort of pattern.

After him came a man who might be a farmer, and looked as if he cared not whether he sold the beast or kept him.
"The best horse in the fair, thane," Erling said to me.