Page:Little Ellie and Other Tales (1850).djvu/85

Rh Russian whale-fishers. I sat and slept at the helm as they sailed past the North Cape. When I now and then awoke up a little, the stormy-petrel flew about my legs; it is a strange bird! he gives a quick stroke with his wings, and then keeps them stretched out immoveably, and needs no further exertion.”

“Do not make your story so long,” said the Mother of the Winds. “And so you came to Bear Island?”

“’Tis splendid there! The ground is like a floor just fit for dancing, as flat as a board! Half-thawed snow and moss, sharp stones, and the skeletons of whales and polar bears lay about, and they looked exactly like the legs and arms of giants covered over with a mouldy green. One would think the sun never shone upon them. I blew aside the mist a little, that I might see the hut. That was a fine house! It was built of the remains of a wreck, and covered with the skin of a whale; the fleshy side outwards, all green and red; and on the roof there sat a live polar bear,