nd about us in
the sea. And besides all this life in the sea, and in the air, and on
the land, we now and then saw a great white bear prowling about upon the
floating ice-fields, seeking seals to feed upon; and, when tired of one
ice-field, he would jump into the water, and swim away and crawl up on
another.

"Thus you observe that, if we were upon a desert island in the Arctic
Sea, it was not so barren as one would think who had never seen anything
of such a place.

"It is not worth while for me to tell you how we lived through this
second summer. Of course we had a much easier time of it than we had had
the summer previous, for there was no hut to build, and we had now
leisure to make ourselves more comfortable; and indeed we used our time
so well that we accumulated, in good season, everything we needed in the
way 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 sure
the bears would not be likely to discover all of them; and then we made
fresh suits of fine fur clothes, and fresh fur bedding, and carved new
lamps and pots and cups out of soapstone, that we might be safe against
all accidents.

"While we were thus working, and watching all the time for ships,
without the hoped-for ship ever coming, the summer passed away, the
birds flew off once more with the setting sun, the sea froze up all
around the island, and we were left again alone,--all, all alone, in the
cold 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 a
time we were very despondent; but the darkest hour, you know, is just
before the break of day, and we were experiencing now only one more of
our many periods of gloom with daybreak following; for when the winter
fairly sealed up the sea around us, and covered everything with snow, we
felt the same spirit of resignation in our lives that had before carried
us through so many trials and difficulties. And in this we were a great
support to each other. If our hearts were more than commonly heavy at
any time, we tried all we could to disguise it from each other, and
tried always to be as cheerful as possible. If we had each always
carried a gloomy face about with him, I am sure both of us must have
died. Thus you see how important is the spirit of cheerfulness; and, to
tell the truth, I