There once was a couple who had a son and his name was Halvor. Ever since he was a little boy he had never wanted to do a thing, but just sat there and poked in the cinders. His parents often put him out to learn this trade or that, but Halvor could stay nowhere; for, when he had been there a day or two, he ran away from his master, and never stopped till he was sitting again in the fireplace poking about in the cinders. But then one say a skipper came, and asked Halvor if he hadn’t a mind to be with him, and go to sea, and see strange lands. Yes, Halvor would like that very much; and then he was ready at once. I don’t know how long they sailed, but after a long, long while they fell into a great storm, and when it was blown over and it got still again, they couldn’t tell where they were; for they had been driven away to a strange coast that none of them knew. As there was no wind at all, they stayed lying wind-bound there, and Halvor asked the skipper leave to go on shore and look about. He would sooner go, he said, than lie there and sleep. "Do you think now you’re fit to show yourself before folk?" said the skipper. "Why, you’ve no clothes but those rags you stand in." But Halvor kept on asking and so at last he got leave, but he was to be sure and come back as soon as ever it began to blow. So off he went and found a lovely land. Wherever he went there were great plains with cornfields and meadows, but he couldn’t catch a glimpse of a living soul.