CHAPTER XVI.
Covers a Long Period of Time, and shows, among otherThings, how a Race may be lost at Both Ends.
"I must now tell you," continued the Captain, "that, while all theseadventures were happening, the winter was passing steadily away; and,from what I have before told you about the Arctic seasons, you will knowthat when the winter came finally to an end the darkness came to an endtoo,--that is, to be more particular, first there was a little flush oflight at noon, to see which made us very glad, you may be sure; afterthis, from day to day, the light grew brighter and brighter, until itwas almost broad daylight, as it is here just before the sun has risenin the morning; then the sun came up a few days afterward only a littleway above the horizon (of course right in the south); and then, nextday, it was a little higher, and the next day a little higher still; andthen, by and by, it was (as it had been in the summer-time before)circling round and round us, shining all the while; and now our hut wasat midnight in the shadow of the cliff; at noon the sun was blazing downupon us, softening the snow, and making our hearts, O, how happy andthankful!--more so than I can tell you.
"I thought that never in all my life had I seen anything so splendid asthe sun's bright face when he appeared for the first time after thislong dark winter. For you must know we were about one hundred and twentydays without once setting eyes upon the sun at all; and now, when he didrise, after this long interval, what could we do but take off our capsand whirl them round and round our heads, in very joy and gladness? andthis I can assure you we did with many a good round cheer.
"The summer now came on steadily, and the temperature became warmerevery day. The spring glided into summer, and early in the month of Junethe snow began to melt in good earnest, and by July great streams weredashing and roaring over the cliffs, and through the gorges, to the sea.Then the sea soon began to show the influence of the summer heat. Theice grew rotten, and, from being white, it got to be quite dark; and wecould no longer go out upon it with any safety, except in one particulardirection, towards the east, where it was much thicker than in any otherplace. Then strong winds came, and the rotten ice was broken up, andafter that it went drifting here and there to right and left, up anddown upon the sea, whichever way the winds were blowing.
"And now once more we kept a sharp lookout for ships, hoping all thetime that 'this day will be the day of our deliverance.' But we lived onas we had done before,--every day adding one more disappointment to thelist,--for no ship came. Thus watching, waiting, hoping on, we grewrestless with anxiety, and were more unhappy than we had ever been inthe gloomy winter that had passed away.
"But the summer brought some pleasure to us. As soon as the snow hadgone, the grass grew green upon the hillside, and the tiny little plantsput out their leaves, and then the tiny little flowers were bloomingbrightly, and turning up their pleasant faces to the ever-smiling sun.
"And then the birds came back,--the eider-ducks, and the little auks,that I have told you of, and great flocks of geese and gulls, alllooking out for places in which to make their nests; and they fairlykept the air alive with the flutter of their wings, and their 'quack,quack, quack,' and their gladsome screams, as they hurried to and fro.
"And then bright yellow butterflies and little bees came fluttering andbuzzing about the little flowers, and all was life and happiness andbrightness in the air about us; but there was no one there to look at usand see how heavy were our hearts at times,--no one but God.
"But not on our desert island alone was nature full of life and gayety.The seals, as if glad that summer had once more returned, crawled outupon the ice, and lay there on it, where it floated in the water,basking in the sun. There were hundreds and hundreds of them to be seenalmost every day; and, besides the seals, the walruses, with their greatlong hideous-looking tusks and ugly and ungraceful bodies, came up too;and the narwhals, also, with their long ivory horns, and the whitewhales, were to be seen at almost any time, 'spouting' round about us inthe sea. And besides all this life in the sea, and in the air, and onthe land, we now and then saw a great white bear prowling about upon thefloating ice-fields, seeking seals to feed upon; and, when tired of oneice-field, he would jump into the water, and swim away and crawl up onanother.
"Thus you observe that, if we were upon a desert island in the ArcticSea, it was not so barren as one would think who had never seen anythingof such a place.
"It is not worth while for me to tell you how we lived through thissecond summer. Of course we had a much easier time of it than we had hadthe summer previous, for there was no hut to build, and we had nowleisure to make ourselves more comfortable; and indeed we used our timeso well that we accumulated, in good season, everything we needed in theway of food and fuel,--catching the birds and other animals as before,which we stowed away in so many different places that we felt quite surethe bears would not be likely to discover all of them; and then we madefresh suits of fine fur clothes, and fresh fur bedding, and carved newlamps and pots and cups out of soapstone, that we might be safe againstall accidents.
"While we were thus working, and watching all the time for ships,without the hoped-for ship ever coming, the summer passed away, thebirds flew off once more with the setting sun, the sea froze up allaround the island, and we were left again alone,--all, all alone, in thecold and snow and darkness of another winter.
"O how heavy were our hearts now! Bright had been our hopes of rescue;great was our disappointment, and unhappy the prospect before us. For atime we were very despondent; but the darkest hour, you know, is justbefore the break of day, and we were experiencing now only one more ofour many periods of gloom with daybreak following; for when the winterfairly sealed up the sea around us, and covered everything with snow, wefelt the same spirit of resignation in our lives that had before carriedus through so many trials and difficulties. And in this we were a greatsupport to each other. If our hearts were more than commonly heavy atany time, we tried all we could to disguise it from each other, andtried always to be as cheerful as possible. If we had each alwayscarried a gloomy face about with him, I am sure both of us must havedied. Thus you see how important is the spirit of cheerfulness; and, totell the truth, I haven't much opinion of long-faced people anyway,whether they live on rocky islands or in big houses or in littlehuts,--whether they are old or young, rich or poor, civilized or savage,Christian or pagan. That's my opinion.
* * * * *
"Well, this winter passed over just as the other had done;--the sameroutine of work and hunting, the same cold and darkness, the sameconstant bearing up against our unhappy fortunes. It did not in anyparticular differ from the other in a manner worthy of mention, exceptthat no bears came this time to disturb us. But there was the sameaurora borealis, the same bright starlight and brighter moonlight, thesame fierce snows and howling gales. We caught foxes and seals as we haddone before, and wanted not for food or fuel. Our health was stillalways good.
"So you see there is no occasion for our halting over this period. I cantell you nothing new about it. The winter came to an end, as everythingmust, in time; the sun came back; the summer followed the winter; andthis, our third summer on the Rock of Good Hope, passed away like theothers, with its bright sunshine, and its pretty butterflies andflowers, and myriads of birds, but still no ship, and still no rescue."
* * * * *
After the Captain had thus spoken, he paused as if to consider whetherhe had omitted anything, in connection with the long period they hadpassed on the island, that would make it worth his while to dwelllonger upon any portion of his story up to this time. Satisfied alwaysof the deep interest and close attention of his young auditors, hethought only of selecting such points of the narrative as seemed to himlikely to convey most pleasure and instruction to the little people,who, ever eager to listen, were yet always curious to have somethingcleared up which the Captain had hastily passed over, thinking little ofit. But still they had the good sense t
o see (to say nothing of therequirements of politeness) that they were not likely to be muchbenefited by interrupting the Captain; for if they asked questions inthe midst of his story he would, in all probability, be put out, andlose the even thread of his narration. But a question, or perhaps avolley of them, was always sure to come if the Captain made a pause, oras he, in mariner phrase, expressed it, lay "hove to," for a littlewhile.
So it was now. No sooner had the Captain stopped his speech, and gotinto the reflective mood, than William's tongue was loosened.
"O Captain Hardy!" said he, "don't go on until you have told ussomething more about those curious little flowers you have been speakingof. It is so odd to think of flowers growing in such a desert place!"
"O, do!" exclaimed little Alice, "O, do, do, Captain Hardy! they must besuch pretty little things! But I don't see how they ever get any chanceto grow, when it is so cold and dreary. How do they?"
"Pretty they are indeed, my dear," replied the kind-hearted Captain,pleased to have the question asked, as was evident, "and very wonderful.How they managed to grow is more than I can tell, and is just asastonishing to me as to yourselves. The snow, however, in the springwent pretty quickly; and as soon as the earth was free in any place,then we saw the tiniest flowers you ever saw coming up, seemingly rightout of the frozen earth, and almost underneath the very snow,--at leastwithin a few inches of it. The Dean and I one day came across one ofthese little flowers, looking just like a buttercup, only the wholeplant was--well, the littlest thing you ever did see. Why, it was solittle that little Alice's little thimble, with which she is learning tosew so prettily, would have been quite large enough for a flower-pot toput the whole of it in! and it would have grown there, too,--and gladenough, no doubt. There was a great snow-bank hanging right over it, andthere was ice all around it. But still it looked spunky, and happy, andwell contented, and seemed quite able to take care of itself.
"As we walked on towards the hut, I noticed that the Dean grew verythoughtful.
"'What's the matter, Dean?' said I; 'what are you thinking about?'
"'About that little flower,' replied the Dean.
"At this I laughed, asking the Dean what there was in the little flowerto think about.
"'A great deal,' said he.
"I laughed again, and asked him what it was.
"'Why,' said he, very soberly, 'it is a lesson to us not to get theblues any more. If that poor flower can live and fight its way againstsuch odds, I think we ought to!'
"Now there was more in that observation of the thoughtful little Deanthan you would think for; and we talked a great deal about the littleflower,--indeed, it came up between us very often; we went back manytimes to it, and watched it closely. Once there came a snow-storm andburied it up; but next day the snow was all melted, and the leaves cameout as green, and the flower as yellow, and the whole plant as plucky,as ever. I should say the flower was about as large round as a verysmall pea, and it was just as yellow as gold; and the whole wee thingwas not taller than a common-sized pin.
"We talked so much about this little flower that we got to making rhymesabout it; and, every time we made a new rhyme, we were much delighted,you may be sure. How we wished we had some way to write down what wethought! It would have been much easier, and a great satisfaction. But,for all that, we finally got quite a song of it, which I have notforgotten, even to this time. To be sure we did not know much aboutmaking verses, and nothing at all about what they call 'feet' in poetry;yet we got some pretty good rhymes for all, though they might be calleda little worm-fency, or like as if they hadn't got their sea-legs on,you know. Now, would you like to hear this little song that the Dean andI made about the little Arctic flower?"
"O yes, yes, dear Captain Hardy!--yes, yes, indeed!" said the children,in such a loud and universal chorus that nobody could have told who"deared" the Captain, or who said "O," or who, "indeed"; but you may besure they all said "yes!" and so the Captain, being thus encouraged,cleared his throat, and said he would repeat it.
"My impression is," he continued, "that it isn't exactly a song; infact, I don't know what it is. I should hardly venture on calling it a'poem,' you see; but still, for all that, we must give it a name, youknow, and 'song,' 'poem,' or what not, its right title anyhow is:--
THE ARCTIC FLOWER.
O tiny, tiny Arctic flower Where have you kept yourself so long? Deep buried in a snowy bower? And did the winter treat you wrong? You little, smiling, gladsome thing! You pretty, pretty flower of spring! You little, little, wee, wee thing! So bright, so cheery in the sun, So everything that every one Would wish a flower to bring. You tiny, tiny little thing! I'm so afraid the frosts will nip Your little feet, you tenderling, You crazy, crazy little thing! What e'er possessed you to come up And nestle there beside the snow, As if you'd warm it with a glow Of golden light from your bright face, On which there is no single trace Of anything like sorrow? Cheery, cheery, always cheery, Always cheery, never weary, E'en with frozen sod close bound, E'en with snow all piled around, E'en with the frosts upon the ground, Your little tender roots to chill! O, what a royal little will You have, you little gladsome thing, You pretty, pretty flower of spring, You little, little weesome mite, You tiny, tiny little sprite! E'en now the snows are at your feet, And piled a hundred times your height, Close, close beside your face so sweet! And yet you smile, you pretty thing, You pretty, pretty flower of spring, You little, little, wee, wee thing! And do not seem to care a bit, And look as happy, every whit, As any other flower of spring. And what a lesson, too, you bring To all of us, you little thing! You show us how to persevere, You show us how a happy cheer May always on the face appear, If God we trust and God we fear; For God is every, every where, And this the flower doth declare,-- The tiny, tiny little flower, The weesome, weesome little flower, The little, smiling, gladsome thing, The pretty, pretty flower of spring, The little, little, wee, wee thing.
"There, now you have it!" exclaimed the Captain, drawing a very longbreath, and looking around, no doubt to see the impression he hadproduced,--"there you have it, my dears!"
The children all expressed themselves highly delighted with this effortof the Captain's in the poetical way, and they all declared if thatwasn't a song they "would like to see one."
Thus greatly flattered by the pleasure the children received from hisrecitation of what had become old to him, and deeply rooted in hismemory, the Captain resumed once more the thread of his narrative, or,rather, "once more picked up the broken yarn, and spun away," as hewould have more graphically expressed it.
* * * * *
"Well, well," continued the Captain, "you see our little flower diedafter a while, and all the other little flowers died; and this broughtus to the end of our third summer on the island and into the thirdwinter.
"This winter passed away as the previous ones had done, and we feltstill greater resignation.
"'Here we are forever,' said the Dean, 'and that we must make up ourminds to. It is God's will, and we must bow before it and bereconciled.'
"'I fear, Dean, that is so,' I answered, solemnly.
"This was in the month of February, and the sunlight was coming back,and, to see if we could not catch a glimpse of the god of day, we hadgone out together, wading through the snow.
"The Dean felt it when he said 'we must be reconciled'; but he hadhardly spoken when our attention was quickly called away from suchreflections (and from the sun too) by seeing something dark upon thefrozen sea, not far away from us. It was moving.
"We were not long in doubt as to what it was, for we had seen too manypolar bears to be cheated this time,--a bear, without any doubt at all.
"He was running very fast, and was making directly towards the island.He soon ran behind a large iceberg,
and for a little while was out ofsight; but he appeared again soon afterwards, and held on in the samecourse. Then we lost him once more among rough ice, and then again hecame in view. He appeared so dark at first, that less-experiencedpersons might have been uncertain about what it was; for although thepolar bear is usually called the white bear, yet in truth he has ayellowish hue, and is quite dark, at least in comparison with the purewhite snow.
"'It's another bear, I do believe!' exclaimed the Dean, and at once wemade for the hut. But the bear was running much faster than we were, andwas moreover coming in right towards the place for which we were bound.So we grew much alarmed, and quickened our speed, not however withoutdifficulty; for the snow was, in places, very deep.
"By and by the bear, which proved to be a very large one, caught sightof us; and, as you know already that the polar bear is rather a cowardlybeast than otherwise, you will not be much surprised to learn that, whenhe saw us, he altered his course, and turned off from the island as fastas he could go. Seeing him do this (as you may be sure to our greatdelight), we halted to watch him; and now we perceived, for the firsttime, that the animal was pursued. By what we could not imagine, but,clearly enough, by something; for in the distance, and from the quarterwhence the bear had come, there was plainly to be seen, winding amongthe bergs and rough masses of ice, something dark following on the verytrack which the bear had taken, sometimes lost to sight and sometimes infull view, and growing larger every moment, just as the bear had done.
"Nearer and nearer came this object, and our wonder increased. Presentlywe heard a cry.
"'Hark!' said the Dean.
"The cry was repeated.
"'A dog!' exclaimed the Dean.
"'A dog!' said I, in answer, for I heard it distinctly.
"'Hark!' said the Dean again, for there was another sound.
"'A man,' said I.
"'A man!' repeated the Dean, excitedly.
"And a man it was.
"Dogs and men! what could they be doing there? was the question that ranthrough both our minds at once.
"But dogs and a man (not men) there were, and whatever they might bedoing there, or whence they might have come, it was certain that dogsand a man made the dark spot which we saw upon the white sea; and itwas, moreover, clear that they were pursuing the bear which had passedus and was now pretty far away.
"Nearer and nearer came the dogs and man, and the sounds became more andmore distinct; the dogs were upon the bear's tracks, the man was upon asledge to which the dogs were fastened. At length they came so near thatthe dogs could be easily counted. They were seven, and all of differentcolors, and were fastened with long lines to the sledge, so that theywere a great way in front of it, and they were running all abreast. Theywere straining and pressing into their collars, all the while cryingimpatiently, as they bounded over the snow at a rapid gallop. The manwas encouraging them along all he could with a long whip, which he threwout with a lively snap, exclaiming, 'Ka-ka! ka-ka!' over and over again;and then, 'Nen-ook, nen-ook, nen-ook!'--many times repeated; for he wasnow so near that we could distinguish every word he said.
"It was a wild chase, and the Dean and I became much excited over it,running all the time to get nearer to the passing sledge and man anddogs.
"Very soon we should have met, but suddenly the bear came in full viewof the dogs, evidently for the first time. Up to this moment the dogshad only been following the track.
"The dogs, now leaving the track, gave a wild, concerted howl, anddashed off after the bear in a straight line. Man, sledge, dogs, and allpassed us quickly by,--the man shouting more excitedly than ever to hisdogs, sometimes calling them by name, as it seemed to us, and sometimescrying 'Nen-ook, nen-ook!' and sometimes, 'Ka-ka! ka-ka!' and so awaythey went, rushing like the wind,--the whole scene more strange thanstrangest dream,--the dogs and man like spectral things, so quickly hadthey come and so unexpectedly; or, at the least, the dogs seemed likehowling wolves, and the man a wild man of the frozen ocean, clothed inwild beasts' skins.
A Race for Life.]
"We called to the man to stop; we shouted, 'Come here, come here!' andthen again, 'Come back, come back!' as loud as we could shout, wavingour caps, and throwing up our arms, and running in a frantic way; butnot the slightest notice would he take of us, not one instant would hestop, but upon his course and purpose he kept right on, pushing afterthe running bear, without appearing to give us even a single thought. Wecould not doubt that he had seen us, we were so near to him.
"On went the bear, on after him went the dogs and sledge and man. Moreimpatient grew the dogs, louder called the man to his excited team, andthe Dean and I ran after, shouting still, as we had done in thebeginning. We came soon upon the sledge track, and followed it at ourgreatest speed.
"At length the cries of the dogs grew indistinct, and then died away atlast entirely, and the man's voice was no longer heard; and that whichhad come so suddenly soon became but a dark moving speck upon the greatwhite frozen sea, as it had first appeared; but after it we stillfollowed on.
"Then the moving speck faded out of sight, and everything around wasstill and cold and solemn and desolate as before. Yet still we ran andran.
"I said as desolate as before. But O, it was a thousand times moredesolate now than ever,--as the night is darker for the lightning flashthat has died away, or a cloudy noon is colder for a single ray ofsunshine that has broken through the vapors.
"Yet on and on we ran and ran, until we could run no more.
"And then we laid us down upon the snow and wept, and bemoaned our hard,hard fate; but no word was spoken. The disappointment was too great forwords; and, after a short rest in the chilly air upon the frozen sea, wewandered slowly back to our poor hut; and after many weary hours wereached it, not so much alive as dead,--for through miles and miles ofheavy snow we had run after the sledge, and through these same miles wehad trudged back again, with the cruel disappointment rankling in ourhearts, and with no hope to buoy us up.
"Strange--was it not?--that at no period of our life upon the desertisland were we so unhappy as we were that day,--never so utterly castdown, never so broken-spirited, never looking on the future with suchhopelessness.
"And in this state of mind we crawled beneath our furs, feeling toolonely and forsaken to have a thought to cook a meal, and so very, veryweary with the labor we had done, in running and wading through theheavy snow, that we did not care for food; and in deep sleep we buriedup the heaviest sorrow that we had ever known,--the grievous sorrow of adead, dead hope,--the hope of rescue that had come and gone from us, asthe cloud-shadow flies across the summer field."