IN SCHAROK CAMP 199 



But you may fool yourself — you may have your 

 Barataria none the less. You can lie back upon 

 the moss with the sea-wind in your face and be — 

 greater than Sancho — be a Prospero who holds all the 



strings. 



Your island perhaps is assailed by legions, half-Viking 

 and half-monstrous forms ; but let the assault break 

 never so fiercely it cannot silence the guns. 



Down at your feet swoops the falcon with the story of 

 the battle, for it watched as it hung in the cloud. And 

 the glitter-winged divers carry your commands, and 

 large-eyed seals come up to spy in unsuspected corners, 

 and, silent and secret, disappear again. 



All the things have their places according to your fancy, 

 and you may detail it as you please— a foolish baby 

 game, but there is no other to play in such a lonely isle. 



July \2tJ1. — We really couldn't stand the seal-fat any 

 longer. It was smeared over the grass and all about, so 

 that it stuck on our boots and came into the tent. It 

 was so universal that we could not avoid it, so adhesive 

 that we could not get it off. 



We moved the tent lower, away out of its reach, and 

 nearer to our snow-pool. Also we collected a heap of 

 chips, which we loaded on the floor-cloth and dragged 

 away. 



A snow-bunting" lightened our labours much. For he 

 sat on the roof of the huts and sang a lovely song, with 



