te energy to keep its place in
the world! The men sat down and rowed back, bringing only his cap, which
they had found floating on the sea. "Ah!" said Hildebrand, with tears in
his eyes, "I did not want to take him this voyage, but his mother begged
me so hard that I could not refuse, and this is the end!"

We had a melancholy party in the cabin that afternoon. The painful
impression made by this catastrophe was heightened by the knowledge that
it might have been prevented. The steamer amidships was filled up to her
rail with coal, and the boy was thrown overboard by a sudden lurch while
walking upon it. Immediately afterwards, lines were rove along the
stanchions, to prevent the same thing happening again. The few feet of
deck upon which we could walk were slippery with ice, and we kept below,
smoking gloomily and saying little. Another violent snow-storm came on
from the north, but in the afternoon we caught sight of some rocks off
Carlscrona, and made the light on Oland in the evening. The wind had
been blowing so freshly that our captain suspected Calmar Sound might be
clear, and determined to try the passage. We felt our way slowly through
the intricate sandbanks, in the midst of fog and snow, until after
midnight, when only six miles from Calmar, we were stopped by fields of
drift ice, and had to put back again.

The fourth morning dawned cold and splendidly clear. When I went on deck
we were rounding the southern point of Oland, through long belts of
floating ice. The low chalk cliffs were covered with snow, and looked
bleak and desolate enough. The wind now came out of the west, enabling
us to carry the foresail, so that we made eight or nine knots, in spite
of our overloaded condition. Braisted and I walked the deck all day,
enjoying the keen wind and clear, faint sunshine of the North. In the
afternoon, however, it blew half a gale, with flurries of mingled rain
and snow. The sea rose, and the steamer, lumbered as she was, could not
be steered on her course, but had to be "conned," to keep off the strain.
The hatches were closed, and an occasional sea broke over the bows. We
sat below in the dark huts; the Pole, leaning against the bulkhead,
silently awaiting his fate, as he afterwards confessed. I had faith
enough in the timidity of our captain, not to feel the least alarm--and,
true enough, two hours had not elapsed before we lay-to under the lee of
the northern end of Oland. The Pole then sat down, bathed f