THE NEW YEAR, i8g6 461. 



The thought of all the good things we should find on 

 board that sloop was w^hat comforted us whenever the 

 time hung unendurably heavy on our hands. Our life 

 was not, indeed, altogether luxurious. How we longed 

 for a change in the uniformity of our diet ! If only we 

 could have had a little sus^ar and farinaceous food, in 

 addition to all the excellent meat we had, we could have 

 lived like princes. Our thoughts dwelt longingly on 

 great platters full of cakes, not to mention bread and 

 potatoes. How^ wt would make up for lost time when 

 we "ot back I And we would bes^in as soon as we 2:ot 

 on board that Tromso sloop. Would they have pota- 

 toes on board ?" Would they have fresh bread } At 

 worst, even hard ship's bread would not be so bad, 

 especially if we could get it fried in sugar and butter. 

 But better even than food would be the clean clothes 

 we could put on. And then books — only to think of 

 books! Ugh, the clothes we lived in were horrible! 

 and when we wanted to enjoy a really delightful hour 

 we would set to work imagining a great, bright, clean 

 shop, where the walls were hung with nothing but new, 

 clean, soft woollen clothes, from which we could pick 

 out everything we wanted. Only to think of shirts, 

 vests, drawers, soft and warm woollen trousers, delicious- 

 ly comfortable jerseys, and then clean woollen stockings 

 and warm felt slippers — could anything more delightful 

 be imagined? And then a Turkish bath! We would 

 sit up side by side in our sleeping-bag for hours at a 



