374 



NEW LAND. 



more to be disappointed. I do not know what was the matter 

 with us, but we always wanted to be going east ; I suppose 

 we had Greely Fjord, and the fjords we had seen last year, on 

 the brain. 



So this was Easter Eve, then, though there were few enough 

 signs up here that it was the eve of a great festival. There were 

 no bells to ring Easter in, no busy folk running over one another 

 to get home in time, no children's laughter, no holyday feeling 

 in the air. Only wind and bad weather, day and night; and 



HASSEL 8 TEAM. 



within doors the ceaseless beating of the storm on the tent-walls. 

 But sometimes when a sunbeam came out for a minute even the 

 bad weather kept Easter, and sprinkled drifting snow-curtains 

 down the mountain-sides. At such times the fairy castles glistened 

 and sparkled till one thought the Ice King himself must come 

 out and take one by the hand and turn one into a block of ice 

 for evermore. But this was only for a moment, and then again 

 the storm swept everything before it in a grey medley of indistinct 

 whirling snow which bit one's nose like a cat but why, thought 

 Nature, perhaps, should we be here at all ? Why could we not 

 let her even freeze in peace ? 



