260 Chapter VI. 



sun over the whole vault of heaven like the stripes on 

 the inner skin of an orange." 



" Sunday, November 5th. A great race on the ice 

 was advertised for to-day. The course was measured, 

 marked off, and decorated with flags. The cook had 

 prepared the prizes cakes, numbered, and properly 

 graduated in size. The expectation was great; but it 

 turned out that, from excessive training during the few 

 last days, the whole crew were so stiff in the legs that 

 they were not able to move. We got our prizes all 

 the same. One man was blind-folded, and he decided 

 who was to have each cake as it was pointed at. This 

 just arrangement met with general approbation, and 

 we all thought it a pleasanter way of getting the prizes 

 than running half-a-mile for them." 



"So it is Sunday once more. How the days cl rag- 

 past ! I work, read, think, and dream ; strum a little on 

 the organ ; go for a walk on the ice in the dark. Low 

 on the horizon in the south-w r est there is the flush of the 

 sun a dark fierce reel, as if of blood aglow with all life's 

 smouldering longings low r and far-off, like the dream- 

 land of youth. Higher in the sky it melts into orange, and 

 that into green and pale blue ; and then comes deep blue, 

 star sown, and then infinite space, where no dawn will 

 ever break. In the north are quivering arches of faint 

 aurora, trembling now like awakening longings, but 

 presently, as if at the touch of a magic wand, to storm 

 as streams of light through the dark blue of heaven- 



