Kari told the captain about the gulls that evening when they were eating supper in the dining room on the boat. The captain said, “During the night the boat will pass a mountain where thousands and thousands of birds roost on the rocks.”
“Can we see the birds from the boat?” asked Lars.
“You could see them,” replied the captain, “if you were awake, but the boat will pass that rock at three o’clock in the morning. You will be sound asleep.”
But Lars and Kari begged so hard that the captain promised to have them called when the boat was near the bird roost.
Lars and Kari didn’t want to go to bed that night. They watched the sun on the mountain peaks of the islands to their right and then back of them to the north. At ten o’clock the sun was still sending a glowing light over the water. The captain said that it would shine until about eleven that night. But Kari thought that they should go to bed at ten o’clock so that they could get a good sleep before three o’clock.
At three o’clock the steward of the boat knocked at the cabin door. Lars and Kari jumped up quickly. Each one pulled on warm stockings and shoes and coat and cap. They hurried to the deck. The sun was shining brightly again; in fact it had risen two hours earlier.
BIRDS FRIGHTENED BY THE BOAT
Suddenly the boat moved close to a rocky wall. Such a screaming of bird cries! There on the rocks were so many, many birds that they never could have counted them. And many more, frightened by the boat, were flying about in the air crying wildly.
Lars and Kari were delighted to have seen the thousands of birds at their resting place on the rocks, but they were glad to go back to bed, even though the sun was so high in the sky. And they slept until eight o’clock too.