'Very well, Nancy,' he said, 'if we can't watch the harbours we'll find the North-west Passage.'
'Yes, Master Godfrey,' said Nancy readily, and without the least idea what he meant.
'Do you know about the Arctic Circle?' asked Godfrey.
Nancy shook her head doubtfully; at the Oakfield Dame School there was not much taught beyond the 'three R's.'
'Please, is it quite round?' she asked respectfully.
'I don't know about round,' said Godfrey, who didn't quite understand the words himself, 'but I think it is a kind of fairy place. The sea is all ice, they have frost and snow there always.'
'Dear now, how bad for the early potatoes!' remarked Nancy, 'and as for sowing beans, why you might as well leave it alone. I suppose they just keep the cows on turnips year in, year out, poor things!'
'Cows!' said Godfrey scornfully; 'of course there aren't any cows, only Polar bears prowling on the ice. And there are icebergs, great mountains of ice all blue, and they come crashing together and grinding up the ships, like a great giant's teeth, Aunt Betty says. And it's always dark, dark all day for months together.'
'Oh dear!' said Nancy, much awe-struck, 'I shouldn't like to be one of the people that lives there, Master Godfrey.'
'Nobody does live there but the Polar bears, and there's a sort of red light comes in the sky that they can see to prowl by, I suppose, and the stars, I should think they're brighter than even they were last night; weren't they bright last night, Nancy, just about supper time?'