THE NEW HANDS 189 



All three were remarkably efficient and friendly men; it 

 was a pleasure to have any deahngs with them. I 

 venture to think that they, too, found themselves at 

 home in our company; they were really only engaged 

 until the Fram called at the first port, but they stayed 

 on board all the way to Buenos Aires, and will certainly 

 go with us farther still. 



When the shore party came on board. Lieutenant 

 Prestrud took up his old position as first officer; the 

 others began duty at once. All told, we were now twenty 

 men on board, and after the Fram had sailed for a year 

 rather short-handed, she could now be said to have a 

 full crew again. On this voyage we had no special 

 work outside the usual sea routine, and so long as the 

 weather was fair, we had thus a comparatively quiet 

 life on board. But the hours of watch on deck passed 

 quickly enough, I expect; there was material in plenty 

 for many a long chat now. If we, who came from land, 

 showed a high degree of curiosity about what had been 

 going on in the world, the sea-party were at least as 

 eager to have full information of every detail of our 

 year-long stay on the Barrier. One must almost have 

 experienced something similar oneself to be able to form 

 an idea of the hail of questions that is showered upon 

 one on such an occasion. What we land-lubbers had 

 to relate has been given in outline in the preceding 

 chapters. Of the news we heard from outside, perhaps 

 nothing interested us so much as the story of how the 



