storm or calm
or fine weather, though often wet and cold, and frequently in danger,
yet I have a grand time of it. I may be back in a day, two days, a week,
or I may be gone a month. Then the winter comes back, and I have again
to answer another summons. The same traps are put on the sledge, to
which are harnessed the twelve finest dogs in the town,--my own
team,--and, at the wildest pace with which this wolfish herd can rush
along, Adam guides me to my destination. Perhaps it may be early in the
winter, and the ice is in places thin. We very likely break through, and
get wet, and are in danger of freezing. Perhaps we reach a crack which
we cannot pass, and have to hold on, possibly in a hut of snow, waiting
for the frost to build a bridge for us to pass. This is the wildest and
most dangerous of my experiences,--this dog-sledging it from place to
place in the early or late winter,--and I have had many wild adventures.
In the middle of the winter, when it is dark pretty much all the time,
and the snow is hard and crisp, and the clear, cold bracing air makes
the blood run freely through the veins, is the best time for travelling;
for then we may start a bear, and be pretty sure of catching him before
he gets on rotten ice or across a crack defying us in the pursuit."

By this time the sun had begun to climb above the hills, and the shadow
of the cliffs had passed over the town, so we stole back again to the
Doctor's house. The Doctor insisted that I should not sleep on board, so
we returned to the study, where I was soon wrapt in a sound sleep on the
Doctor's "shake-down," from which I never once awoke until there came a
loud tapping on the door.

"Who's there?"

"Sophy."

"What's Sophy want?"

"Breakfast."

Breakfast indeed! It was hard to believe that I was to come back to the
experiences of life under such a summons, for I had dreamed that I was
on a visit to the Man in the Moon, and was enjoying a genuine surprise
at finding him happy and well contented, seated in the centre of an
extinct volcano, with all the riches of the great satellite gathered
round him, hanging in tempting clusters on its horns.

But my eyes at length were opened wide enough to see, near by, the very
terrestrial ruins of our evening's pastime; and if these had left any
doubts upon my mind as to the reality of my present situation, those
doubts would certainly have been removed by the cheerful voice of the
Doctor; for a loud "Good morni