So I followed Mikel closely, as he had bade me, but what thumps our sleighs would sometimes get on the now uneven ice of the river! Fortunately they were very strongly built.
We slept at a place called Songamuodka. In the morning it snowed, but the flakes were big and soft and melted as they fell on the old snow. I met no more herds of reindeer, but since I had left on my journey southward I had seen between sixty-five and seventy thousand of them.
Two days after I saw the church spire of Pajala, rested there, and on the 24th of May, as I was travelling on the Torne River, I passed once more the Arctic Circle. It was raining. I was told that it was the first rain that had fallen for over seven months.
Here I said good-bye to the good Mikel and thanked him cordially for the care he had taken of me.
I had now left the kingdom of the "Long Night," and the "Long Day" was to rule over the land through which we have travelled together.
Now, my dear Young Folks, Friend Paul has come back, as you bade him, and I hope you have enjoyed our travelling together in "The Land of the Long Night." Good-bye. Do not forget your Friend Paul, who loves you dearly, for once he was one of the Young Folks himself.
Paul Du Chaillu's Great Work
THE VIKING AGE
THE EARLY HISTORY, MANNERS, &
CUSTOMS OF THE ANCESTORS OF
THE ENGLISH-SPEAKING NATIONS
WITH 1400 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAP
2 vols., 8vo, $7.50