) 
N 
CHAPTER VII. 
COLLOQUY IN THE BUNKS-WINTER TRAVEL-PREPARATIONS — 
REINDEER FEEDING-GROUNDS-TERRACED BEACHES-A WALK- 
OCCUPATIONS. 
“March 21, Wednesday.—On this day one year 
ago Mr. Brooks and his party were frozen up in the 
hummocks. The habit of comparing the condition of 
two periods, of balancing the thoughts and hopes of 
one with the realized experience of the other, seems 
to me a very unprofitable one. It interferes with the 
practical executive spirit of a man, to mix a bright and 
happy past with a dim and doubtful present. It’s a 
maudlin piece of work at best, and I’ll none of it. 
“ But listen to poor Brooks there, talking. He is 
sitting up, congratulating himself that he can nearly 
straighten his worst leg- ‘ Well, Mr. Ohlsen, I thought 
we would never get through them hummocks. You 
know we unloaded three times; now, I would not say 
it then, but seeing I am down I’ll tell you. When we 
laid down the last pemmican-case, I went behind the 
ice, and don’t remember nothing till Petersen called 
70 
