Dr. Nansen is not a man whose happiness depends much on the possession of luxuries, but there was at least one luxury which he confesses that he missed during his long tramp with Lieutenant Johansen after they left the Fram. The winter they spent in a hut passed comfortably, he says, and if they had had a little flour, a little sugar, and a few books they could have lived like lords. They did not complain at the absence of these things, however, but one thing they did long for was soap. "It was difficult enough," Dr. Nansen writes, "to get one's person clean, but that we managed to a certain extent by rubbing in bear's blood and fat, and then rubbing this off with moss." But this process was inapplicable to clothes, and they were very desirous of washing their under-clothes before beginning their spring journey. "After trying every other possible way, we found, to our despair, no better expedient than to boil them as best we could and then scrape them with a knife. In this way we got so much off of them that they did to travel with, though the thought of putting on clean clothes when we once got back to Norway was always in our minds as the greatest enjoyment that life could bestow."
An analogy is traceable between this pleasure of anticipation and the glee of Dan Troop, as described in Kipling's Captains Courageous, at the prospect of getting back to Gloucester after five months on the Banks and sleeping in a clean boiled night-shirt.
There is a picture in Farthest North of Nansen at the end of his long ice journey, and still in the soapless state, meeting Captain Brown of the Windward, who brought him home.
A RESTLESS BOY'S REASON.
"I'm going to be a minister," said Tommie, forcibly.
"Why, Tommie dear?" asked his father.
"So's I can talk in church," said Tommie.