198 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
which had prevailed on the Terra Nova, namely, the drink- _ 
ing of the old toast of Saturday night, “Sweethearts and 
Wives ; may our sweethearts become our wives, and our 
Wives remain our sweethearts,’ and that more appropriate | 
(in our case) toast of Sunday, namely, ‘“‘absent friends.” — 
We had but few married officers, though I must say most 
survivors of the expedition hurried to remedy this single — 
state of affairs when they returned to civilization. Only 
two of them are unmarried now. Most of them will prob- 
ably make a success of it, for the good Arctic explorer has 
most of the defects and qualities of a good husband. 
On the top of the pianola, close to the head of the table, 
lived the gramophone; and under the one looking-glass 
we possessed, which hung on the bulkhead of Scott’s 
cubicle, was a home-made box with shelves on which lay 
our records. It was usual to start the gramophone after 
dinner, and its value may be imagined. It is necessary to 
be cut off from civilization and all that it means to enable 
you to realize fully the power music has to recall the past, 
or the depths of meaning in it to soothe the present and 
give hope for the future. We had also records of good 
classical music, and the kindly-disposed individual who 
played them had his reward in the pleasant atmosphere 
of homeliness which made itself felt. After dinner had 
been cleared away, some men sat on at the table occupied 
with books and games. Others dispersed to various jobs. 
In the matter of games it was noticeable that one would 
have its vogue and yield place to another without any 
apparent reason. For a few weeks it might be chess, which 
would then yield its place to draughts and backgammon, 
and again come into favour. It is a remarkable fact that, 
though we had playing cards with us none of our company 
appeared desirous to use them. In fact I cannot remember 
seeing a game of cards played except in the ship on the 
voyage from England. f 
With regard to books we were moderately well pro- 
vided with good modern fiction, and very well provided © 
with such authors as Thackeray, Charlotte Bronté, Bulwer- 
Lytton and Dickens. With all respect to the kind givers — 
