THE WINTER NIGHT 365 



model Sverdrup is possessed by him. They have not 

 yet played the shirts off their backs, but some of them 

 have literally played the bread out of their mouths ; two 

 poor wretches have had to go without fresh bread for a 

 whole month because they had forfeited their rations of 

 it to their opponents. But, all the same, this card-playing 

 is a healthy, harmless recreation, giving occasion for much 

 laughter, fun, and pleasure. 



"An Irish proverb says, 'Be happy; and if you can- 

 not be happy, be careless ; and if you cannot be careless, 

 be as careless as you can.' This is good philosophy, 

 which — no, what need of proverbs here, where life is 

 happy! It was in all sincerity that Amundsen burst out 

 yesterday with, ' Yes, isn't it just as I say, that we are the 

 luckiest men on earth that can live up here where we have 

 no cares, get everything given us without needing to 

 trouble about it, and are well off in every possible way T 

 Hansen agreed that it certainly was a life without care. 

 Juell said much the same a little ago; what seems to please 

 him most is that there are no summonses here, no cred- 

 itors, no bills. And I ? Yes, I am happy too. It is an 

 easy life ; nothing that weighs heavy on one, no letters, 

 no newspapers, nothing disturbing; just that monastic, 

 out-of-the-world existence that was my dream when I was 

 younger and yearned for quietness in which to give my- 

 self up to my studies. Longing, even when it is strong 

 and sad, is not unhappiness. A man has truly no right 

 to be anything but happy when fate permits him to fol- 



