Page:The open Polar Sea- a narrative of a voyage of discovery towards the North pole, in the schooner "United States" (IA openpolarseanarr1867haye).pdf/204

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I go ashore for?" said he, one day, to some of the officers who were reciting to him the wonders of the land. "Me go ashore! De land be very good place to grow de vegetables, but it no place to be. I never goes ashore ven I can help it, and please my Hebenly Fader I never vill."

I have passed an hour of the evening very pleasantly with the officers in their cabin, have had my usual game of chess with Knorr, and now, having done with this journal for the day, I will coil myself up in my nest of furs and read in Marco Polo of those parts of the world where people live without an effort, know not the use of bear-skins, and die of fever. After all, one's lines might fall in less pleasant places than in the midst of an Arctic winter.