fortable room with Herr Agar
smoking a cigar, and gaily attired to receive us. The "Herr" spoke but
little English; we no Danish: however, the quiet and reserved manner of
the good northern did not conceal a certain kindness of which he soon
gave us hospitable proof; for, on acceding to his offer of a little
coffee, we were surprised to see a nice tidy lady--his wife, as he
informed us--spread a breakfast fit for a Viking, and then with gentle
grace she ably did the honours of her board. Hang me, when I looked at
the snow-white linen, the home-made cleanly cheer, the sweet wife all
kindness and anxiety, I half envied the worthy Dane the peace and
contentment of his secluded lot, and it needed not a glass of excellent
Copenhagen schiedam to throw a "couleur de rose" about this Ultima
Thule of dear woman's dominion.

[Headnote: _HERR AGAR._]

The morning pull had given a keenness to our appetites, and I have a
general recollection of rye bread, Danish cake, excellent Zetland
butter, Dutch cheese, luscious ham, boiled potatoes, and Greenland
trout fresh from the stream. Could sailors ask for or need more? I can
only say that we all felt that, if Herr Agar and Madame Agar (I hate
that horrid word Frau) would only borrow our last shilling, we were
ready to lend it.

A broken conversation ensued, a little English and much Danish, when
Dr. D---- fortunately produced Captain Washington's Esquimaux
vocabulary, and, aided by the little son of our host, we soon twisted
out all the news Herr Agar had to give.

Captain Penny had only stayed a short time. He arrived on May the 4th.
The prospect of an early season was most cheering, and then the worthy
Herr produced a piece of paper directed to myself by my gallant friend
Penny. He wrote in haste to say his squadron had arrived, all well,
after a splendid run from Aberdeen: he was again off, and sent kind
remembrances, dated May 4th.

This, at any rate, was joyful intelligence, and worth my journey to
Disco; my heart leaped with joy, and I thought, at any rate, if we were
late, he was full early.

After a long chat, we went for a stroll, in which a tree--yes! as I
live, a tree--was discovered. Be not envious, ye men of Orkney, it
stood full thirteen inches high, and was indigenous, being the dwarf
birch-tree, the monarch of an arctic forest! Stumbling upon the
churchyard I should have indulged my taste for old tombstones, had not
the musquitoes forbidden it; and, with a hurrie