agged. Gallant fellows! they met our commiseration
with a smile, and a vow that they could do far more. They spoke of cold
as "Jack Frost," a real tangible foe, with whom they could combat and
would master. Hunger was met with a laugh, and a chuckle at some future
feast or jolly recollections told, in rough terms, of by-gone good
cheer; and often, standing on some neighbouring pile of ice, and
scanning the horizon for those we sought, have I heard a rough voice
encouraging the sledge-crew by saying, "Keep step, boys! keep step! she
(the sledge) is coming along almost by herself: there's the 'Erebus's'
masts showing over the point ahead! Keep step, boys! keep step!"

[Headnote: _PLEASING DREAMS._]

We had our moments of pleasure too,--plenty of them, in spite of the
cold, in spite of fatigue. There was an honest congratulation after a
good day's work; there was the time after the pemmican had been eaten,
and each one, drawing up his blanket-bag around him, sat, pannikin in
hand, and received from the cook the half-gill of grog; and after
drinking it, there was sometimes an hour's conversation, in which there
was more hearty merriment, I trow, than in many a palace,--dry
witticisms, or caustic remarks, which made one's sides ache with
laughter. An old marine, mayhap, telling a giddy lamby of a seaman to
take his advice and never to be more than a simple private; for, as he
philosophically argued, "whilst you're that, do you see, you have to
think of nothing: there are petty officers, officers, captains, and
admirals paid for looking after you and taking care of you!" or perhaps
some scamp, with mock solemnity, wondering whether his mother was
thinking of him, and whether she would cry if he never returned to
England; on which a six-foot marine remarks, that "thank God, he has
got no friends; and there would only be two people in England to cry
about him,--the one, the captain of his company, who liked him because
he was the tallest man in it, and the canteen sergeant, whom he had
forgot to pay for some beer." Now a joke about our flags and mottoes,
which one vowed to be mere jack-acting; then a learned disquisition on
raising the devil, which one of the party declared he had seen done,
one Sunday afternoon, for the purpose of borrowing some cash to play
skittles with. In fact, care and thought were thrown to the winds; and,
tired as we were, sleep often overtook us, still laughing at the men's
witticisms. And then such d