,"--and he filled up two dainty French
straw-stem glasses, and pledged me in the good old Danish style. Then,
when the claret came back, this time all rightly tempered, the Doctor
filled the glasses, and hoped that, when I "left this place, the girls
would pull lustily on the tow-ropes."
Hunger and thirst were soon appeased. "And now," said the Doctor, when
this was done, "I know you are dying for the want of something fresh and
green. You have probably tasted nothing that grew out of dear old Mother
Earth since leaving home";--and he tinkled his silver bell again, and
Sophy of the silver seal-skin pantaloons and dainty boots tripped softly
through the door.
"Sophy, haven't you a surprise for the American?"
Sophy smiled knowingly, and said, "Yes," as she retreated. In a moment
she came back, carrying a little silver dish, with a little green
pyramid upon it. Out from the green peeped little round red
globes,--_radishes_, as I lived!--round red radishes!--_ten_ round red
radishes!
"What! radishes in Greenland!" I exclaimed involuntarily.
"Yes, and raised on my own farm, too; you shall see it by and by." The
Doctor was enjoying my surprise, and Sophy looked on with undisguised
satisfaction. Meanwhile I lost no time in tumbling the pyramid to
pieces, and crunching the delicious bulbs. They disappeared in a
twinkling. Their rich and luscious juices seemed to pour at once into
the very blood, and to tingle at the very finger-tips. I never knew
before the full enjoyment of the fresh growth of the soil. After so long
a deprivation it was indeed a strange, as it will remain a lasting
sensation. Never to my dying day shall I forget the ten radishes of
Greenland.
"You see that I was right," exclaimed my host, after the vigorous
assault was ended. "And now," continued he, addressing Sophy, "bring the
other things."
The "other things" proved to be a plate of fine lettuce, a bit of
Stilton cheese, and coffee in transparent little china cups, and sugar
in a silver bowl, and then cigars,--everything of the best and purest;
and as we passed from one thing to another, I became at length persuaded
that the Arctic Circle was a myth, that my cruise among the icebergs was
a dream, and that Greenland was set down wrongly on the maps. Long
before this I had been convinced that Doctor Molke was a most mysterious
character, and wholly unaccountable.
After we had finished this sumptuous lunch and chatted for a while, the
Docto
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