Poisson.
Truite à la Norvège.
Gibier.
Teal en matelote de Bacon.
Pommes de terre sautéd in a frying-pan.
Potage.
Skoggaggany.
Potage is frequently eaten last, for it keeps hot longer than the other dishes, and as we always feed in the open air in fine weather, they cool more quickly than in civilisation.
About nine o’clock a splendid display of northern lights was produced for our benefit, and we stayed up till twelve o’clock baking bread and gazing at the ever-changing beauties of this glorious sight. In the course of conversation it transpired that the same thing happened last night in a milder form, and it was this that Esau had announced as a comet. To-night he was immensely delighted with the show, because he says it will bring good luck; quoting ‘Aurora bright, dear harbinger of dawn.’ He said this was Shakespeare, and if Shakespeare called Aurora a ‘deer harbinger,’ that ought to be enough for us. The other two agreed, but did not believe Shakespeare ever wrote that, or anything like it. ‘What play was it in?’ ‘Play!’ said Esau, with the utmost contempt, ‘you awful duffers, it’s in the sonnets; I dare say you never read all of them.’ This was unanswerable, for of course no one ever did read all the sonnets. But in revenge John composed some poetry about Esau, after the manner of Walt Whitman, he said.
If Walt Whitman ever wrote anything like this, he ought to be made to read it. We give a few lines:—
‘’Twas he who culled the bluest berry sweet,
And with his jodelling made the heights reply