with some other members of
this expedition I kept my eye on the Commander, and although it was not
usual for him to break forth into song, I frequently heard him humming
a popular air, and I knew that for the present all was well with him.

With the ship lightened, by being unloaded, to a large extent, of all of
the stores, she did not very appreciably rise, but the Commander and the
Captain agreed that she could be safely worked considerably closer to
the shore, inside of the tide-crack possibly; and the _Roosevelt_ was
made fast to the ice-foot of the land, with a very considerable distance
between her and open water. Her head was pointed due north, and affairs
aboard her assumed regulation routine. The stores ashore were
contracted, and work on getting them into shape for building temporary
houses was soon under way. The boxes of provisions themselves formed the
walls, and the roofing was made from makeshifts such as sails,
overturned whale-boats, and rocks; and had the ship got adrift and been
lost, the houses on shore would have proved ample and comfortable for
housing the expedition.

A ship, and a good one like the _Roosevelt_, is the prime necessity in
getting an expedition within striking distance of the Pole, but once
here the ship (and no other boat, but the _Roosevelt_ could get here)
is not indispensable, and accordingly all precautions against her loss
were taken.

It is a fact that Arctic expeditions have lost their ships early in the
season and in spite of the loss have done successful work. The last
Ziegler Polar Expedition of 1903-1905 is an example. In the ship
_America_ they reached Crown Prince Rudolph Island on the European
route, and shortly after landing, in the beginning of the long night,
the _America_ went adrift, and has never been seen since. It is not
difficult to imagine her still drifting in the lonely Arctic Ocean, with
not a soul aboard (a modern phantom ship in a sea of eternal ice). A
more likely idea is that she has been crushed by the ice, and sunk, and
the skeleton of her hulk strewn along the bottom of the sea, full many a
fathom deep.

* * * * *

However, the depressing probabilities of the venture we are on are not
permitted to worry us. The _Roosevelt_ is a "Homer" and we confidently
expect to have her take us back to home and loved ones.

In the meantime, I have a steady job carpentering, also interpreting,
barbering, tailoring, dog-train