* * * * *
Even in the absence of their friends, Ingomar and Lieutenant Curtis, during the month of January and the first two weeks of February, the lads, Charlie and Walter, found something to do. It is good old Watts, I believe, who tells us that—
“The devil still some mischief finds
For idle hands to do.”
But, like brave British boys, they did not mean to wait for the devil to suggest anything. They had brought some books with them, it is true, but their muscles needed exercise, their joints needed lubricants to keep them in health.
So on every available day, every day, indeed, on which a bird could have flown, had there been any birds here, they were off, after breakfast, either on a sleighing trip or a scamper on snow-shoes, accompanied by Nora and Nick.
Gruff and Growley sometimes took it into their wise heads to make two of the party, and Grumpey with Meg would come shuffling up behind, accompanied by their own particular pets, the three Yak dogs that had slept in their den at sea.
They used to return hungry as hunters to the modest midday dinner.
The ponies were never forgotten, we may be sure. It was felt to be a sacred duty to take them out twice a day.
But this was not all, for something, I know not what, had induced the boys to bring with them in the sledge-baggage not only a supply of hockey sticks and balls, but two footballs as well. And so a game of footer was carried on right merrily when weather permitted, halfway down the glen, where the snow was level and hard.
The sailors enjoyed this immensely, so, too, did the Eskimos. So, for the matter of that, did Nick and Nora, although they introduced some new features into the game, which never before had been dreamt of.