“Hands off!” the mastiff seemed to say, “hands off till we know more about you!”

* * * * *

Of course Uncle was chief favourite with the children, but all the three of them came to like the little professor very much indeed.  He was with them nearly all day long.  Tom was usually very busy; so, too, was Uncle Staysail; and though it must not be thought that Pete was an idle man, for he had much to study, still he always found time to romp and play with Aralia, Pansy, and the two dogs.

Though the weather grew colder for a time, it was all one long, long summer’s day.  For in the Arctic regions the sun never sets for at least three months, but just goes round and round, blazing high in the south at mid-day, and lower in the north at midnight.  Indeed, in these seas, if you were not to look at the clock, you could not really tell whether it was night or day.

Every evening now the little party gathered round the large stove, on which a copper urn of coffee was always gently simmering.  Then the professor told his strangest stories, with perhaps Pansy on his knee, and Aralia lying on the hearth-rug with the dogs.  Most of his yarns were about the Frozen North, its dangers and perils, its joys and pleasures.

“And shall we see all these strange sights?” Pansy used to ask.

“Yes, dear, and many more than these, because I mean to give you a treat if you are good and don’t get your fingers frozen.”

One day great lumps of white snow-clad ice came floating by, and that same evening the crow’s-nest was hoisted high, high up at the very top of the main-mast.  The crow’s-nest was like a big barrel with a lid at the bottom, Pansy said, and Tom, or the mate, used to climb and crawl through the bottom, and stand, spy-glass in hand, and look all about them.

“Oh,” cried Pansy one day, “shouldn’t I like to get up just once!  Wouldn’t you, Ara?”

“But we could never climb up,” sighed her sister.

The clever professor heard them, and lo and behold! the very next day he had a kind of easy-chair ready for them to go up in.  He himself sat down in it with the children, and up they were hoisted, up and up.  It was so fearsome that the girls shut their eyes and clung to Pete, but when they did open them what a sight they saw!

They were not far off the main pack, and as far as the eye could see was one vast field of snow-covered ice.  Their eyes were dazzled in looking at it.

They were not in the crow’s-nest, but close beside it, and Pete made them look through the spy-glass.  This was wonderful, for away yonder to the north, and near to the edge of the pack, where the sea looked as black as ink, they could see four great ships, with their crews on the ice, shooting seals and dragging skins.  But in two hours’ time the Valhalla herself got north as far as these ships, and was stopped.

Neither of the girls felt cold, for they wore great mits and hoods, and were altogether as snug as mice.