Fred, I must get
you bound apprentice, and give you regular work to do, you
good-for-nothing."

We need scarcely say that the captain jested, for Fred was possessed of
a spirit that cannot rest, so to speak, unless at work. He was able to
do almost anything _after a fashion_, and was never idle for a moment.
Even when his hands chanced to be unemployed his brows were knitted,
busily planning what to do next.

"Well now, gentlemen," resumed the captain, "let us consider the order
of business. The first thing that must be done now is to unstow the
hold, and deposit its contents on the small island astern of us, which
we shall call Store Island, for brevity's sake. Get a tent pitched
there, Mr Bolton, and bank it up with snow. You can leave Grim to
superintend the unloading. Then, Mr Saunders, do you go and set a gang
of men to cut a canal through the young ice from the ship to the island.
Fortunately the floes there are wide enough apart to let our
quarter-boats float between them. The unshipping won't take long. Tell
Buzzby to take a dozen men with him and collect moss; we'll need a large
quantity for fuel, and if another storm like this comes, it'll be hard
work to get down to it. Send Meetuck to me when you go on deck; I shall
talk to him as to our prospects of finding deer hereabouts, and arrange
a hunt. Doctor, you may either join the hunting party or post up the
observations, etcetera, which have accumulated of late."

"Thank you, Captain," said Singleton, "I'll accept the latter duty, the
more willingly that I wish to have a careful examination of my botanical
specimens."

"And what am I to do, Captain?" enquired Fred.

"What you please, lad."

"Then I'll go and take care of Meetuck; he's apt to get into mischief
when left--"

At this moment a tremendous shout of laughter, long-continued, came from
the deck, and a sound as of numbers of men dancing overhead was heard.

The party in the cabin seized their caps and sprang up the companion,
where they beheld a scene that accounted for the laughter, and induced
them to join in it. At first sight it seemed as if thirty polar bears
had boarded the vessel, and were executing a dance of triumph before
proceeding to make a meal of the crew; but on closer inspection it
became apparent that the men had undergone a strange transformation, and
were capering with delight at the ridiculous appearance they presented.
They were clad from head to foot in Esquima