“Shall I ask Captain Marsham to see if we can’t find the sea-serpent for you?”
“There, now you’re laughing at me.”
“Then don’t be so impatient. Why, you stupid fellow, isn’t it wonderful enough to be sailing along here in what looks like constant summer save for the floating ice, and with that glorious sun going round and round in the sky without setting? Is not this constant daylight alone worth the journey?”
“Ye–es,” replied Steve; “only it does seem a bit wasteful.”
“Wasteful?”
“Yes. What’s the good of having the sun shining when you are asleep? It would be ever so much better to have some of it in the winter, or else for us to be so that we did not want any sleep for months in summer, and did not want to be awake for months in the winter, when it’s dark.”
“I say, Marsham!” cried the doctor, laughing, “come and listen. Here’s our philosopher going to set nature right and improve the whole world.”
“Oh, I say, Mr Handscombe, don’t,” whispered Steve, flushing.
“What does he propose doing?” said the captain as he joined them.
“He wants to keep awake all the summer and sleep all the winter; he says it would be better.”