300 FARTHEST NORTH 



graduated in size. The expectation was great ; but it 

 turned out that, from excessive training during the few 

 last days, the whole crew were so stiff in the legs that 

 they were not able to move. We got our prizes all the 

 same. One man was blindfolded, and he decided who 

 was to have each cake as it was pointed at. This just 

 arrangement met with general approbation, and we all 

 thought it a pleasanter way of getting the prizes than 

 running half a mile for them. 



" So it is Sunday once more. How the days drag 

 past! I work, read, think, and dream; strum a little on 

 the organ ; go for a walk on the ice in the dark. Low 

 on the horizon in the southwest there is the flush of the 

 sun — a dark fierce red, as if of blood aglow with all life's 

 smoulderins: lons^insfs — low and far-off, like the dream- 

 land of youth. Higher in the sky it melts into orange, 

 and that into green and pale blue; and then comes deep 

 blue, star-sown, and then infinite space, where no dawn 

 will ever break. In the north are quivering arches of 

 faint aurora, trembling now like awakening longings, but 

 presently, as if at the touch of a magic wand, to storm 

 as streams of light through the dark blue of heaven — 

 never at peace, restless as the very soul of man. I can 

 sit and gaze and gaze, my eyes entranced by the dream- 

 glow yonder in the west, where the moon's thin, pale, 

 silver sickle is dipping its point into the blood ; and 

 my soul is borne beyond the glow, to the sun, so far 

 off now — and to the home-coming! Our task accom- 



