“But I see you are getting warm with walking.  We will go a little more slowly, so that you won’t perspire too much.  It is not more than -51deg., so you have every reason to be warm walking.  With that temperature and calm weather like to-day one soon feels warm if one moves about a little ....  The flat place we have now come down into is a sort of basin; if you bend down and look round the horizon, you will be able with an effort to follow the ridges and hummocks the whole way round.  Our house lies on the slope we are now approaching.  We chose that particular spot, as we thought it would offer the best protection, and it turned out that we were right.  The wind we have had has nearly always come from the east, when there was any strength in it, and against such winds the slope provides an excellent shelter.  If we had placed our house over there where the depot stands, we should have felt the weather much more severely.  But now you must be careful when we come near to the house, so that the dogs don’t hear us.  We have now about a hundred and twenty of them, and if they once start making a noise, then good-bye to the peaceful Polar morning.  Now we are there, and in such daylight as there is, you can see the immediate surroundings.  You can’t see the house, you say.  No; I can quite believe it.  That chimney sticking out of the snow is all there is left above the Barrier.  This trap-door we are coming to you might take for a loose piece of boarding thrown out on the snow, but that is not the case:  it is the way down into our home.  You must stoop a bit when you go down into the Barrier.  Everything is on a reduced scale here in the Polar regions; we can’t afford to be extravagant.  Now you have four steps down; take care, they are rather high.  Luckily we have come in time to see the day started.  I see the passage-lamp is not yet lighted, so Lindstrom has not turned out.  Take hold of the tail of my anorak and follow me.  This is a passage in the snow that we are in, leading to the pent-house.  Oh!  I’m so sorry; you must forgive me!  Did you hurt yourself?  I quite forgot to tell you to look out for the threshold of the pent-house door.  It is not the first time someone has fallen over it.  That’s a trap we have all fallen into; but now we know it, and it doesn’t catch us any more.

“If you will wait a second I’ll strike a match, and then we shall see our way.  Here we are in the kitchen.  Now make yourself invisible and follow me all day, and you will see what our life is like.  As you know, it is St. John’s Eve, so we shall only work during the forenoon; but you will be able to see how we spend a holiday evening.  When you send your account home, you must promise me not to paint it in too strong colours.  Good-bye for the present.”