THE WHITE WORLD 



with here and there little patches of turf, sometimes scat- 

 tered with flowers, the strangely clad people who all greeted 

 us with a smile, the small grass-grown huts, the wide sweep 

 of landscape without a single tree, the numberless icebergs 

 dotting the water everywhere; all were sources of wonder 

 to me. Here I lived for a month and grew to love the 

 land and the kindly people. 



Prominent among the recollections of this life, the form 

 of Nicholas stands out. Nicholas was our man-of-all-work. 

 When I found he was to be our servant, I told Mr. Lee 

 that I couldn't endure his presence. Tall, awkward, flat- 

 faced, snub-nosed, and asthmatic, he was not attractive. 

 One could hear him coming some way off, for he breathed 

 like a porpoise. Soon, however, he proved himself so 

 valuable to us that my dislike for him wore off. He under- 

 stood a few English words, and used them on every occa- 

 sion. If he wished to 



COMFORTS IN THE ARCTIC ^ ys f^ water he 



would ask "me ketch 

 um pail?" to chop 

 kindling, "me ketch 

 um wood?" or to 

 build the fire, "me 

 ketch um stove ?" 



Recept-ioi\Haill, ^ 



0ov(lQir ar£ Kifcherv. 



Everything was "ketch um" until I lay down at night to 

 dream of Nicholas chasing vainly the things he wanted to 



168 



