"No," I answered, looking down, for I had hardly studied at all.

He smiled a little, and said, "I thought so."

A STORY

148. You have perhaps read some of the stories of Thor, the great god of thunder, whom the ancient Scandinavians worshiped. Our word Thursday means Thor's day. Another one of the gods was Tyr, or Tiu, from whose name we get our word Tuesday. Odin, or Woden, was the king of them all. Wednesday comes from his name. These gods and all their kin lived in a place called Asgard, from which they occasionally went forth on adventure. One of their thrilling experiences is given below. Some one of you will read it aloud to the class; and if he does not read it slowly, expressively, giving each word its true value, some one else will try.

Thor Borrows a Kettle

The old god Ægir, who lived with his wife and their nine beautiful daughters in the waves of the sea, once went to Asgard to visit Odin and the other divinities who lived there. As he was very well entertained, he felt it necessary to invite them to dine with him and his family in the depths of the ocean.

"Yes, we shall be glad to come, friend Ægir," said one of the Æsir, or gods, "but you must know that we are rather particular about our eating."

Ægir was not offended by this very plain speech, but replied in good humor, “Oh, I have the very best food that the sea affords, and you shall be very well entertained! But then," he added, after a moment of hesitation, "I

am not so sure about the drink. I should have to brew a great deal, and my kettle is rather small."

Now Thor was not to be cheated out of a good dinner by any such excuse as this, so he said in his big thundering voice, "Don't worry about that. I will go to Hymir the Giant, and borrow the biggest kettle he has."

So he set out at once, taking with him Tyr, the god of war. They rode along over the mountains and valleys in Thor's goat chariot, making the fire fly from the rocks wherever they touched them. They were soon in the giant's country; but not wishing to be recognized, they left the chariot at a hut and proceeded on foot until they arrived at the house itself, beside a great cold sea.

When the door opened at their knock, they beheld an old woman with nine hundred heads.

"Don't be afraid, my friend," whispered Tyr to Thor; "it is only my grandmother."

"What do you want?" snapped the old woman with all of her mouths.

"We want to borrow a kettle," said Thor.

Just behind the old woman appeared a young and very beautiful one. "Come in," she said. "But you will have to hide under the kettles that hang on the beam in the hall; for my husband is a terrible fellow, and he may kill you with the look of his eye."

Almost as soon as they were hid, Hymir came in, shooting baleful glances into all the corners.

"We have visitors," said his beautiful wife timidly. "They want to borrow a kettle.”

Then the rafters began to split, for Hymir's eyes were flashing wrath, and the hidden ones quailed as the kettles were dashed to pieces all around them. But the young wife was crafty, and managed to persuade her husband to slay three oxen for supper.

"Who can these people be?" asked Hymir of his wife when supper was over. "Did you notice that the big one ate two oxen himself? I shall have to go fishing before breakfast." And he fell asleep.

In the morning when he went down to the sea, Thor followed and said to him, "I am going to help you fish, my friend; for I am a great fisherman when the fishing's good."

"Get your own bait, then," growled the giant.

So Thor cut off the head of the giant's biggest ox, put it on his hook, and rowed far out to sea.

"Don't go so far," pleaded the giant. "The great Midgard snake lies in the sea out here somewhere, and if you get him on your hook, what will happen to us?"

"Don't be afraid," said Thor; "I am not afraid of him." And he rowed for a long time, but finally put up his oars and began to fish.

The giant fished too, and in a little while had caught two whales, which flopped around noisily in the boat.

Suddenly Thor felt a mighty tug. He braced himself and began to pull. The sea was lashed into blood and foam.

"Don't you think we'd better go back?" shouted Hymir. "Two whales are enough for breakfast."

"No, I don't," said Thor. He braced himself and pulled and pulled and pulled. Suddenly his feet went through the bottom of the boat and rested on the bottom of the sea. A great slimy head with slimy eyes rose out of the red and white waves.

"It's the Midgard serpent," shouted the giant. "He reaches around the world. He holds his tail in his mouth. If you pull him out, the world will fall to pieces. Let go the line!"

Thor had no thought of letting go. It was his way to

keep on fighting. But as the serpent's jaws were about to engulf them, the giant pulled out his knife and cut the fishing line, and the great snake sank back into the depths of the sea.

"Take that, you meddler!" shouted Thor in violent rage, as he struck Hymir with Miölnir, his hammer, and knocked him into the seething waves.

But that finished the fishing sure enough. The giant waded to shore carrying his two whales, while Thor rowed back; and when he reached the beach, he shouldered boat, oars, and fishing tackle, and carried them home to the giant's dwelling.

They ate the whales for breakfast. Feeling refreshed and not quite so much afraid of Thor as he had been on the sea, Hymir threw down his goblet before Thor and challenged him to break it.

Thor threw it against floors and pillars and walls, but he could not even dent it. Then the old woman slyly whispered to him out of her nine hundred mouths, "Throw it against Hymir's head."

Crash went the goblet against the giant's head, and broke into a thousand pieces! For the giant's head was the only substance that was harder than the goblet itself.

"Well, I don't know who you are," said Hymir, rubbing the sore spot, "but I will lend you my kettle. There it is. It is my biggest one, and it is the only one that did not break when the beam fell. Take it and go, strangers."

Tyr sprang to the kettle and tried to lift it. It would not budge. Then Thor tried, but could not move it. "Wait," said Thor. "I will tighten my magic belt, Megin-giörd. That doubles my strength."

Again he strained at the kettle, lifted it, and put it over his head like a hat. It was so big that it almost

hid him as he went rushing over mountains and valleys; it was a mile deep and nearly as wide. Tyr followed.

But the giant was angry again, for when Thor had lifted the kettle the house had cracked and the floor had been splintered. Calling some of his fellow giants from all about, Hymir pursued Thor and Tyr, intending to kill them.

Thor, however, was not dismayed. Taking off the kettle, he drew again his famous red-hot hammer, which would always strike what he aimed at and would always return to his hand. He threw it, and killed the giants one by one.

It must have been a great feast that the gods had with Ægir!

STUDY IN PARAGRAPHING AND PUNCTUATION

149. Some of the story in the preceding section is conversation. If you will examine the second paragraph, you will see that it consists of a quoted sentence and the explanation that accompanies it. This is true of all the paragraphs that contain conversation. Conversation is not always paragraphed in this manner, but it is usually done so in stories and in the writing of long conversations, and you are advised to follow the custom. Study the story paragraph by paragraph, and point out what is quotation and what is explanation.

Yes and no are both found in the story, with commas after them. The word well at the beginning of a sentence is also found in the story, where the speaker means that he is going on to another topic from that which has been occupying the attention