I have never seen the ship so bright and cheerful. Sundry boxes have been produced from out-of-the-way corners, and from the magical manner of their appearance one might think that Santa Claus had charged himself with a special mission to this little world, before he had begun to fill the shoes and stockings and to give marriage portions to destitute maidens, in the dear old lands where he is patron of the "Christ Kinkle Eve," and where the silver cord binding the affections is freshened once a year with the Christmas offering. The cabin-table fairly groans under a mass of holiday fare,—kindly mementos from those who are talking about us to-night around the family fire-side. Shoals of bon-bons, and "Christmas cakes" of every imaginable kind, bearing all sorts of tender mottoes, come out of their tin cases, setting off prospective indigestion against glad hearts.
CHRISTMAS DAY.
Everybody has been busy to-day getting ready to celebrate the morrow and to keep the holidays. To this praiseworthy purpose I give, of course, every encouragement. The ship's stores contain nothing that is too good for the Christmas feast, which McCormick promises shall outdo that of his birthday. Unfortunately he will be unable to give it his personal attention, for he is laid up with a frosted foot which he got while hunting, in some manner known only to himself. As no one at home likes to confess that he has been run away with and thrown from his steed, so no one here cares to own to the power of Jack Frost over him. To be frost-bitten is the one standing reproach of this community.
December 26th.
Christmas has come and gone again, and has left upon the minds of all of us a pleasant recollection. To me it would have been a day of unalloyed pleasure, had it not been that my thoughts followed Sonntag, and dwelt upon the sad loss that I have suffered in the death of my dogs; for the people were gay and lively, and to see them thus is now my first concern. Aside from all sentiment connected with wishing people happy, to me it has another meaning, for it is the guaranty of health.
The ship's bell was hoisted to the mast-head, and while the bells of other lands were pealing through the sunlight, and over a world of gladness, ours sent its clear notes ringing through the darkness and the solitude. After this we met together in the cabin, and gave our thanks in our own modest way for the blessings which kind Heaven had vouchsafed us; and then each one set himself about his allotted duties. It is needless to say that these duties concerned chiefly the preparation and advancement of every thing which concerned a "Christmas dinner." The officers dressed the cabin with flags, and the sailors decorated their walls and beams with stripes of red, white, and blue flannel which was loaned to them from the ship's stores. The schooner was illuminated throughout, and every lamp was called into requisition. An extra allowance of oil was granted to the occasion, and the upper-deck was refulgent with light. Two immense chandeliers were constructed for the dinner-tables, and some gold and silver paper, strings of spangles, and strips of braid, kindly presented to us by Mr. Horstmann for the winter theatricals, which have never come off, covered the wood of which they were composed, and gave them quite an air of splendor; while two dozen of spermacetti candles brilliantly illuminated the apartments in which they hung.
A short time before the dinner-hour I visited the men's quarters, at their request, and was as much gratified with the taste that they had exhibited as with the heartiness with which they entered into the spirit of the day. Every nook and corner of the hold was as clean and tidy as possible. Everybody was busy and delighted. The cook might, however, be regarded as an exception to the latter rule, for the success of everybody's projects depended upon his skill, and he was closely watched. I halted at his red-hot galley-stove, and wished him a merry Christmas. "Tank you, sar!" said he; "but I gets no time to tink about de merry Christmas. De Commander see dese big reindeers." And he went on vigorously basting two fine haunches of venison which had been carefully treasured for the occasion, and putting the last touches to a kettle of tempting soup. Intending encouragement, I reminded him that his labors would be over with the serving of the dinner, when, with that consistency for which human nature is remarkable, especially in a ship's cook, he replied, "Please sar, so long as my Hebenly Fader gives me healt I likes to vork."
MERRY CHRISTMAS.
As I passed out of the hold into the officers' cabin, the crew sent after me three cheers, and three more for the expedition, and I don't know how many followed afterward for a "merry Christmas" to themselves. The upper-deck was light and cheerful with the multitude of lamps, and had been "cleared up" with unusual care; and from amidships every thing had been removed. This Knorr told me was his work, and I was informed that there was to be a "ball." The disposition to consume oil was contagious. Even the heathenish little wife of my absent hunter had managed to procure an additional supply, and rejoiced in an extra blaze in honor of the day, the meaning of which was all Greek to her. Her hut was a cheerful nest of furs, and little Pingasuik, with a strip of tough seal-blubber, substituted for one of Goodyear's patent arrangements for children's gums, was laughing and crowing as a Christian baby would be expected to do on this most Christian day. Jacob, fat Jacob, was grinning in one corner. Charley told me that he began grinning early in the morning, at the prospect of the many crumbs to come from so bounteous a feast; and, in order to prepare himself for the task, he had swallowed a fox which Jensen brought in from one of his traps, and which he had turned over to the boy to skin. Out on the ice I found a boisterous group engaged around two large tin kettles. They were stirring something with wooden sticks, and I found that, at 34° below zero, they were making "water ice" and "Roman punch" by wholesale. They needed no chemical compounds for their "freezer."
At six o'clock I joined the officers at dinner. Our glass and crockery has, in some mysterious manner known only to the steward, been disappearing from the time of leaving Boston, but there is plenty of tin ware to supply the deficiency, and each cup contained a boquet of flowers, cut from tissue-paper, and a mammoth centre-piece of the same materials stood under the glittering chandelier. The dinner was much enjoyed by everybody, and if we lacked the orthodox turkey, the haunch was not a bad substitute.