“It proved that the name Old Grim, that the Dean and I had given Metak, was even more appropriate than we thought; for it seemed that he was generally known as the man who laughed with his insides without the help of his face.
“Altogether these savages were a most singular people. They seemed to be happy and cheerful all the time, never caring for anything, so long as they had enough to eat, and plenty of time to tell stories about each other and make each other laugh. But what struck the Dean and I most strangely was that they should be living in this happy state away out there on the sea, a long distance from land, really burrowing in the snow for shelter, and roaming about for food like beasts of prey, and yet enjoying themselves and amusing themselves after the fashion of civilized human beings, so far as their relations to one another were concerned.
“‘Well, I do declare,’ said the Dean, ‘this is an odd party, to be sure. I’m going to christen them, Hardy.’
“‘Christen them, or Christian them’? I asked.
“‘Both, perhaps,’ answered the Dean; ‘but for the present I mean christen,—that is, give them a name.’
“‘That I understand; but what’s the name?’
“‘The Children of the Frozen Sea.’
“‘Very good,’ I said, ‘capital! Children of the frozen sea! Sounds good, at any rate; and all the world is agreed that whatever sounds good must be good.’”