CHRISTMAS FROLICS. 
269 
"It was on deck, of course, but veiled from the sky 
by our felt covering. A large ship's ensign, stretched 
from the caboose to the bulwarks, was understood to 
hide the stage, and certain meat-casks and candle- 
boxes represented the parquet. The thermometer 
gave us —6° at first; but the favoring elements soon 
changed this to the more comfortable temperature of 
-4°. 
"Never had I enjoyed the tawdry quackery of the 
stage half so much. The theatre has always been to 
me a wretched simulation of realities ; and I have too 
little sympathy with the unreal to find pleasure in it 
long. Not so our Arctic theatre : it was one continual 
frolic from beginning to end. 
" The ' Blue Devils :' God bless us ! but it was very, 
very funny. None knew their parts, and the prompter 
could not read glibly enough to do his office. Every 
thing, whether jocose, or indignant, or commonplace, 
or pathetic, was delivered in a high-tragedy monotone 
of despair ; five words at a time, or more or less, ac- 
cording to the facilities of the prompting. Megrim, 
with a pair of seal-skin boots, bestowed his gold upon 
the gentle Annette ; and Annette, nearly six feet high, 
received it with mastodonic grace. Annette was an 
Irishman named Daly ; and I might defy human be- 
ing to hear her, while balanced on the heel of her boot, 
exclaim, in rich masculine brogue, ' Och, feather !' with- 
out roaring. Bruce took the Landlord, Benson was 
James, and the gentle Annette and the wealthy Me- 
grim were taken by Messrs. Daly and Johnson. 
"After this followed the Star Spangled Banner; then 
a complicated Marseillaise by our French cook, Hen- 
ri ; then a sailor's hornpipe by the diversely-talented 
Bruce ; the orchestra — Stewart, playing out the inter- 
