rm hold of it, it was
so slippery with ice; and all pulling and pushing of the two together
was in vain, though the boat was so light that either of them could have
lifted and carried it in a time of thaw.

This circumstance caused a good deal of delay: and, what was worse, it
obliged them to make some noise. They struck at the ice with sharp
stones; but it was long before they could make any visible impression;
and Erica proposed, again and again, that they should proceed on the
raft. Oddo was unwilling. The skiff would go so incomparably faster,
that it was worth spending some time upon it: and the fears he had had
of its leaking were removed, now that he found what a sheet of ice it
was covered with,--ice which would not melt to admit a drop of water
while they were in it. So he knocked and knocked away, wishing that the
echoes would be quiet for once, and then laughing as he imagined the
ghost-stories that would spring up all round the fiord to-morrow, from
the noise he was then making.

Erica worked hard too; and one advantage of their labour was that they
were well warmed before they put off again. The boat's icy fastenings
were all broken at last: and it was launched: but all was not ready yet.
The skiff had lain in a direction east and west; and its north side had
so much thicker a coating of ice than the other, that its balance was
destroyed. It hung so low on one side as to promise to upset with a
touch.

"We must clear off more of the ice," said Erica. "But how late it is
growing!"

"No more knocking, I say," replied Oddo. "There is a quieter way of
trimming the boat."

He fastened a few stones to the gunwale on the lighter side, and took in
a few more for the purpose of shifting the weight, if necessary, while
they were on their way.

They did not leave quiet behind them, when they departed. They had
roused the multitude of eider-ducks, and other sea-fowl, which thronged
the islet, and which now, being roused, began their night-feeding and
flying, though at an earlier hour than usual. When their discordant
cries were left so far behind as to be softened by distance, the
flapping of wings and swash of water, as the fowl plunged in, still made
the air busy all round.

The rowers were so occupied with the management of their dangerous
craft, that they had not spoken since they left the islet. The skiff
would have been unmanageable by any maiden and boy in our country; but,
on the coast of N