Half-Past Bedtime

he had always been very fond of him; and he was gladder still when Captain Jeremy and Gwendolen's aunt left Bellington Square. This they did

bly path, with lawns on each side of it, and big trees standing on the lawns, with low-spreading branches that touched the grass. Behind the house was a kitchen-garden full of cucumber-frames and vegetables, and behind that was an orchard,

, although she had never known her very well, but Cuthbert said that he didn't like her and that he'd rather stay at home. Marian told him how much she had improved since her voyage to Monkey Island, but Cuthbert said that he didn't care

e same time as he. She was rather a decent girl, ten years old, with dark-coloured eyes and brown hair, and one of her thumbs was double-jointed, and she had been eight ti

came and shook

d, "what's the

"They've just had them out, and of

examined them

ed him, and

"is a trip with me. That w

off to play, so Cuthbert and

it very much,

is, "but I'm afraid Mum

n the Arctic Circle. But you wouldn't be able to go to school next ter

hand up and pin

rather sor

ine," sa

Jeremy

ctic Circle," he said, "for people

spoke

know where Cuthbert live

ext street to Cuthbert's. Her father was dead, and her mummy

Jeremy

ersuade her," he said, "to let me

nced up

e cried. "I'd simply love

wished it ever so much more the next morning when Captain Jeremy called on her father and mother and persuaded them to let Cuthbert go. Then he went to John Street

urs, but we can easily get those when we arrive, and all they'll want

coast had hardly been explored, it was all so bare and bleak and rocky. The only people who lived there were a few fishermen, a clergyman called Mr Smith, and a couple of engineers, who had been there for a year and had just found a coal-mine. It was the engineers wh

nshine. Sometimes they went below into the dark engine-room, where they had to shout to make themselves heard, and where the pistons of the engines slid to and fro like the arms of boxers that never got t

aw something in the distance like the grey ghost of a cathedral. It was an iceberg-the first that they had seen; but soon they began to see them every day,

was on deck now, shouting all the time, and the steamer was going very slowly, with ice on each side of it, and they could see some men coming toward them, with rough-haired dogs pulling sledges. At last the steamer could get no farther, although it was still about a mile from the town, and they cast out anchors and a long cable that they began to carry toward the

ls. Then they all set off toward the little town, with the lights shining in its windows, and Mr Smith said that they must stay with him, because he and Mrs Smith had no children. Cap

had learned to toboggan on Fairbarrow Down. Just before they went to bed they saw a wonderful thing, for the whole of the sky began to quiver, and beautiful colours went d

ing on to the top of Cape Fury and tobogganing back again, more than a mile and a half, right down to Mr Smith's house. The first time they climbed up there the slope had looked so steep, and the roofs of the houses so far below them, that they had stood for nearly ten

they had kept in the middle of it, and ran safely into the town. After that it didn't seem worth while to go tobogganing on any of

he ice, they could see the little steamer, with the sailors on the deck, and beyond the ice a strip of blue water, and beyond that again more ice still. That was on one side of them, and on the other they

we toboggan down there? I don't s

to sparkle as she listened to Cuthbert's great idea. When he was at home Cuthbert didn't get many ideas, and he generally

t, if we see a precipice or anything, we

ly, but lower down the side of the hill became steeper, and soon they were going so fast that, even if they had wanted to, they would have found it pretty hard to stop themselves.

s shooting deeper and deeper into the very heart of the frozen earth. Sometimes a bump on the floor of the tunnel would send them careering toward the roof, and then they would come down again with a thud that almost pitched them off the toboggan. Every moment they expected to be killed. There came another tremendous bump. And then they felt

he said; "are

so," said Do

ve, and that they had pitched down from somewhere near the top of it on to a huge mass of feathers. These were evidently

en standing all round them, dressed in the skins of animals, and with feathers sticking to their beards. They were all looking rather disturbed, but when Cuthbert and Doris smiled they began to smile too and come toward them. Then they began to talk, and, though at first the sounds that they made seemed very queer, Cuthbert and Doris, rather to their surprise, found that they could understand them perfectl

floor of it was of smooth ice, but in the middle there was a flat rock; and on this rock there was a little fire burning, a little fire made of coal. The leader of the men was a man called Marmad

id Cuthbert. "Why do yo

d, and so did al

o out and hunt to get our wolf-and

and wolf-chops. The coal that they burnt they had found in a deep hole in one corner of the cave, and at the other corner there was a little crack, down which they presently led the children. This op

'll go on for a week. But luckily we've got plent

is. "They won't know where we are, an

e shook

ck in any case. You could never climb up the way you

omehow," said Cuthbert, "beca

e looked

he said. "And why shou

nd cousins. They were very interested, but it was quite clear that Cuthbert and Doris couldn't leave that night; and so presently they crept in among the feathers, and were soon very comfy and

ept down the crack they found the sky clear and the sun shining. They could now see, towering straight above

said that far in the distance they heard the report of a gun. Then a long way off they saw some little figures and a tiny sled

learned man had discovered them, and he had tried to measure them with a pair of compasses, so they had had to kill him, as gently as they could, by putting him in the middle of the pile of feathers. Th

d good Mr Smith had tears in his eyes, but they were tears of joy. Everybody at Port Jacobson, too, was so pleased that they made a

em, because Cuthbert hadn't believed in Mr Jugg. But Cuthbert had grown wiser and less conceited, and he told Marian that he had changed his mind

that lear

abyhood

that bro

ys before

that toss

st man walk

with cra

Roman c

ll its prid

crept ba

wisdom th

the eart

JOE'

a at