92 HUNTING IN THE ARCTIC 



a hand cart, about half a mile from where the old scow 

 lay, to the rear of a meagerly fitted tool shop of which 

 Kleinschmidt had engaged the use. It contained a 

 bench and vise, a few drills and dies. We borrowed tools 

 from the "Kotzebue" and the "Alaska" in the shape of 

 ratchets, cold chisels and hack saws. 



Now we naturally expected to see Captain Larsson 

 lead an onslaught on the job that would finish it up in a 

 day or two. But oh, no! This was Sunday, which 

 agreeably to ship^s laws and in accord with the biblical 

 injunction must be observed as a day of rest while the 

 ship was in port, although when on the high seas one 

 would not have taken the skipper for a deeply religious 

 man. Indeed, he addressed himself to the task as if it 

 were to give occupation for the rest of the sunmier. A 

 good rest, plenty of food and sleep were necessary for 

 successful mechanical work, and besides a word from Ed 

 Bom, we suspected, had said, ''to take his time about it." 

 We raged among ourselves, but hardly liked to say much 

 openly because Kleinschmidt was our official spokesman 

 and he had not been able to hurry things. As the delay 

 was costing him about seventy dollars a day, Klein- 

 schmidt was nearly wild. Larsson, however, pursued his 

 placid existence, reading and loafing about the ship dur- 

 ing the morning, and as he was the mechanical man of 

 the party it seemed imavoidable to let him take his own 

 way. If others had undertaken and done the work in a 

 way which did not meet his approval, he might have 

 refused to go to sea. 



Jimmie, the cabin boy, took advantage of this acces- 

 sibility of dry land to have a fight with the cook. 

 ''Cook, he bad man," Jimmie confided to me. "Me 

 want to leave ship here." 



