Part 15 (2/2)

A warm kennel had been erected for them there, partly in order that the s.h.i.+p might be kept more thoroughly clean, and partly that the dogs might act as a guard over the stores, in case bears or wolves should take a fancy to examine them. But nothing would induce the poor animals to keep away from the s.h.i.+p and remain beyond the sound of human voices. They deserted their comfortable abode with one consent the first time they were sent to it, preferring to spend the night by the side of the s.h.i.+p upon the bare snow. Coaxing them was of no use. O'Riley tried it in vain.

”Ah! then,” said he to Dumps with a wheedling air and expression of intense affection that would have taken by storm the heart of any civilized dog, ”_won't_ ye come now an' lay in yer own kennel? Sure it's a beautiful wan, an' as warm as the heart of an iceberg. Doo come now, avic, an' I'll show ye the way.”

But Dumps's heart was marble; he wouldn't budge. By means of a piece of walrus, however, he was at length induced to go with the Irishman to the kennel, and was followed by the entire pack. Here O'Riley endeavoured to make them comfortable, and prevailed on them to lie down and go to sleep; but whenever he attempted to leave them, they were up and at his heels in a moment.

”Och! but ye're too fond o' me intirely, Doo lie down agin, and I'll sing ye a ditty?”

True to his word, O'Riley sat down by the dog-kennel, and gave vent to a howl which his ”owld grandmother,” he said, ”used to sing to the pig;”

and whether it was the effects of this lullaby, or of the cold, it is impossible to say, but O'Riley at length succeeded in slipping away and regaining the s.h.i.+p, un.o.bserved by his canine friends. Half-an-hour later he went on deck to take a mouthful of fresh air before supper, and on looking over the side he saw the whole pack of dogs lying in a circle close to the s.h.i.+p, with Dumps comfortably asleep in the middle, and using Poker's back for a pillow.

”Faix, but ye must be fond of the cowld to lie there all night when ye've got a palace on Store Island.”

”Fond of society, rather,” observed Captain Guy, who came on deck at the moment; ”the poor creatures cannot bear to be left alone. It is a strange quality in dogs which I have often observed before.”

”Have ye, capting? Sure I thought it was all owin' to the bad manners o'

that baste Dumps, which is for iver leadin' the other dogs into mischief.”

”Supper's ready, sir,” said Mivins, coming up the hatchway, and touching his cap.

”Look here, Mivins,” said O'Riley, as the captain went below, ”can you point out the mornin' star to me, lad?”

”The morning star?” said Mivins slowly, as he thrust his hands into the breast of his jumper, and gazed upwards into the dark sky, where the starry host blazed in Arctic majesty. ”No, _h_of course, I can't. Why, don't you know that there _h_ain't no _morning_ star when it's _night_ all round?”

”Faix ye're right. I niver thought o' that.”

Mivins was evidently a little puffed up with a feeling of satisfaction at the clever way in which he had got out of the difficulty, without displaying his ignorance of astronomy, and was even venturing, in the pride of his heart, to make some speculative and startling a.s.sertions in regard to the ”'eavenly bodies” generally, when Buzzby put his head up the hatchway.

”Hallo! messmates, wot's ado now? Here's the supper awaitin', and the tea bilin' like blazes!”

Mivins instantly dived down below, as the sailors express it; and we may remark, in pa.s.sing, that the expression, in this particular case, was not inappropriate, for Mivins, as we have elsewhere said, was remarkably agile and supple, and gave beholders a sort of impression that he went head-foremost at everything. O'Riley followed at a more reasonable rate, and in a few minutes the crew of the _Dolphin_ were seated at supper in the cabin, eating with as much zest, and laughing and chatting as blithely, as if they were floating calmly on their ocean home in temperate climes. Sailors are proverbially light-hearted, and in their moments of comfort and social enjoyment they easily forget their troubles. The depression of spirits that followed the first disappearance of the sun soon wore off, and they went about their various avocations cheerfully by the light of the aurora borealis and the stars.

The cabin, in which they now all lived together, had undergone considerable alterations. After the return of Fred Ellice and the hunting-party, whom we left on the ice-belt in the last chapter, the bulk-head, or part.i.tion, which separated the cabin from the hold had been taken down, and the whole was thrown into one large apartment, in order to secure a freer circulation of air and warmth. All round the walls inside of this apartment moss was piled to the depth of twelve inches to exclude the cold, and this object was further gained by the spreading of a layer of moss on the deck above. The cabin hatchway was closed, and the only entrance was at the farther end, through the hold, by means of a small doorway in the bulk-head, to which was attached a sort of porch, with a curtain of deer-skins hung in front of it. In the centre of the floor stood an iron cooking-stove, which served at once the purpose of preparing food and warming the cabin, which was lighted by several small oil lamps. These were kept burning perpetually, for there was no distinction between day and night in mid-winter, either in the cabin or out of doors.

In this snug-looking place the officers and men of the s.h.i.+p messed, and dwelt, and slept together; but, notwithstanding the _apparent_ snugness, it was with the greatest difficulty they could keep themselves in a sufficient degree of warmth to maintain health and comfort. Whenever the fire was allowed to get low, the beams overhead became coated with h.o.a.r-frost; and even when the temperature was raised to the utmost possible pitch, it was cold enough, at the extreme ends of the apartment, to freeze a jug of water solid.

A large table occupied the upper end of the cabin between the stove and the stern, and round this the officers and crew were seated when O'Riley entered and took his place among them. Each individual had his appointed place at the mess-table, and with unvarying regularity these places were filled at the appointed hours.

”The dogs seem to be disobedient,” remarked Amos Parr, as his comrade sat down; ”they'd be the better of a taste o' Meetuck's cat, I think.”

”It's truth ye're sayin',” replied O'Riley, commencing a violent a.s.sault on a walrus-steak; ”they don't obey orders at all, at all. An' Dumps, the blaggard, is as cross-grained as me grandmother's owld pig--”

A general laugh here interrupted the speaker, for O'Riley could seldom inst.i.tute a disparaging comparison without making emphatic allusion to the pig that once shared with him the hospitalities of his grandmother's cabin.

”Why, everything you speak of seems to be like that wonderful pig, messmate,” said Peter Grim.

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