id stringlengths 16 16 | text stringlengths 150 2.3k | word_count int64 30 60 | source stringclasses 1
value | book_id stringclasses 1
value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
twg_000012588400 | Benjy." "Butterface!" shouted the boy. "Yis, massa." "Fetch the Captain's glasses, please." "Yis, massa." A pair of large binoculars were brought up by a huge negro, whose name was pre-eminently unsuggestive of his appearance. After a long steady gaze at the horizon, the Captain shut up the glass with an air of determi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588401 | full steam, and the crew to be ready with the ice-poles. There was a large berg at the extremity of the lakelet of open water into which Captain Vane wished to break. It was necessary to keep well out of the way of that berg. The Captain trusted chiefly to his screw, but got out the ice-poles in case they | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588402 | should be required. When all the men were stationed, the order was given to go ahead full steam. The gallant little yacht charged the neck of ice like a living creature, hit it fair, cut right through, and scattered the fragments right and left as she sailed majestically into the lakelet beyond. The shock was severe, b... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588403 | done, everything on board having been made as strong as possible, and of the very best material, for a voyage in ice-laden seas. An unforeseen event followed, however, which ended in a series of most terrible catastrophes. The neck of ice through which they had broken had acted as a check on the pressure of the great b... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588404 | floe, and it was no sooner removed than the heavy mass began to close in with slow but irresistible power, compelling the little vessel to steam close up to the iceberg--so close that some of the upper parts actually overhung the deck. They were slowly forced into this dangerous position. With breathless anxiety the Ca... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588405 | gentle, but really tremendous grinding of the ice against the vessel's side. Even the youngest on board could realise the danger. No one moved, for nothing whatever could be done. "Everything depends, under God, on the ice easing off before we are crushed," said the Captain. As he spoke, the timbers of the yacht seemed... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588406 | then there was a succession of loud cracks, and the vessel was thrust bodily up the sloping sides of the berg. While in this position, with the bow high and dry, a mass of ice was forced against the stern-post, and the screw-propeller was snapped off as if it had been made of glass. Poor Captain Vane's heart sank as | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588407 | if he had received his death-blow, for he knew that the yacht was now, even in the event of escaping, reduced to an ordinary vessel dependent on its sails. The shock seemed to have shaken the berg itself, for at that moment a crashing sound was heard overhead. The terror-stricken crew looked up, and for one moment a pi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588408 | a church spire was seen to flash through the air right above them. It fell with an indescribable roar close alongside, deluging the decks with water. There was a momentary sigh of relief, which, however, was chased away by a succession of falling masses, varying from a pound to a ton in weight, which came down on the d... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588409 | cannon-shots, breaking the topmasts, and cutting to pieces much of the rigging. Strange to say, none of the men were seriously injured, though many received bruises more or less severe. During this brief but thrilling period, the brothers Vandervell and Benjy Vane crouched close together beside the port bulwarks, parti... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588410 | Captain stood on the quarter-deck, quite exposed, and apparently unconscious of danger, the picture of despair. "It can't last long," sighed poor Benjy, looking solemnly up at the vast mass of the bluish-white berg, which hung above them as if ready to fall. Presently the pressure ceased, then the ice eased off, and in... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588411 | back into the sea, a pitiable wreck! Now had come the time for action. "Out poles, my lads, and shove her off the berg!" was the sharp order. Every one strained as if for life at the ice-poles, and slowly forced the yacht away from the dreaded berg. It mattered not that they were forcing her towards a rocky shore. | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588412 | Any fate would be better than being crushed under a mountain of ice. But the danger was not yet past. No sooner had they cleared the berg, and escaped from that form of destruction, than the ice began again to close in, and this time the vessel was "nipped" with such severity, that some of her principal timbers gave wa... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588413 | Finally, her back was broken, and the bottom forced in. "So," exclaimed the Captain, with a look of profound grief, "our voyage in the _Whitebear_, lads, has come to an end. All that we can do now is to get the boats and provisions, and as much of the cargo as we can, safe on the ice. And sharp's the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588414 | word, for when the floes ease off, the poor little yacht will certainly go to the bottom." "No, massa," said the negro steward, stepping on deck at that moment, "we can't go to de bottom, cause we's dare a-ready!" "What d'ye mean, Butterface?" "Jus' what me say," replied the steward, with a look of calm resignation. "I... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588415 | seed de rocks stickin' troo de bottom. Der's one de size ob a jolly-boat's bow comed right troo my pantry, an' knock all de crockery to smash, an' de best teapot, he's so flat he wouldn't know hisself in a lookin'-glass." It turned out to be as Butterface said. The pack had actually thrust the little vessel on a shoal, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588416 | which extended out from the headland off which the catastrophe occurred, and there was therefore no fear of her sinking. "Well, we've reason to be thankful for that, at all events," said the Captain, with an attempt to look cheerful; "come, lads, let's to work. Whatever our future course is to be, our first business is... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588417 | and cargo out of danger." With tremendous energy--because action brought relief to their overstrained feelings--the crew of the ill-fated yacht set to work to haul the boats upon the grounded ice. The tide was falling, so that a great part of the most valuable part of the cargo was placed in security before the rising ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588418 | was fortunate, for, when the water reached a certain point the ice began to move, and the poor little vessel was so twisted about that they dared not venture on board of her. That night--if we may call it night in a region where the sun never quite went down--the party encamped on the north-western coast of Greenland, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588419 | lee of a huge cliff just beyond which the tongue of a mighty glacier dipped into the sea. For convenience the party divided into two, with a blazing fire for each, round which the castaways circled, conversing in subdued, sad tones while supper was being prepared. It was a solemn occasion, and a scene of indescribable ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588420 | eternal glacier of Greenland--the great Humboldt glacier-- shedding its bergs into the dark blue sea, the waters of which had by that time been partially cleared to the northward. On the left was the weird pack and its thousand grotesque forms, with the wreck in its iron grasp; on the right the perpendicular cliffs, an... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588421 | with the smoke of the campfires rising into it from the foreground. "Now, my friends," said Captain Vane to the crew when assembled after supper, "I am no longer your commander, for my vessel is a wreck, but as I suppose you still regard me as your leader, I assemble you here for the purpose of considering our position... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588422 | deciding on what is best to be done." Here the Captain said, among other things, it was his opinion that the _Whitebear_ was damaged beyond the possibility of repair, that their only chance of escape lay in the boats, and that the distance between the place on which they stood and Upernavik, although great, was not bey... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588423 | resolute men. "Before going further, or expressing a decided opinion," he added, "I would hear what the officers have to say on this subject. Let the first mate speak." "It's my opinion," said the mate, "that there's only one thing to be done, namely, to start for home as soon and as fast as we can. We have good boats, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588424 | plenty of provisions, and are all stout and healthy, excepting our doctor, whom we will take good care of, and expect to do no rough work." "Thanks, mate," said the doctor with a laugh, "I think that, at all events, I shall keep well enough to physic you if you get ill." "Are you willing to take charge of the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588425 | party in the event of my deciding to remain here?" asked the Captain of the mate. "Certainly, sir," he replied, with a look of slight surprise. "You know I am quite able to do so. The second mate, too, is as able as I am. For that matter, most of the men, I think, would find little difficulty in navigating | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588426 | a boat to Upernavik." "That is well," returned the Captain, "because I do not intend to return with you." "Not return!" exclaimed the doctor; "surely you don't mean to winter here." "No, not here, but further north," replied the Captain, with a smile which most of the party returned, for they thought he was jesting. Be... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588427 | think so. A gleeful look of triumph caused his face, as it were, to sparkle, and he said, eagerly-- "We'll winter at the North Pole, father, eh?" This was greeted with a general laugh. "But seriously, uncle, what do you mean to do?" asked Leonard Vandervell, who, with his brother, was not unhopeful that the Captain med... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588428 | is not far off the mark. I intend to winter at the Pole, or as near to it as I can manage to get." "My dear Captain Vane," said the doctor, with an anxious look, "you cannot really mean what you say. You must be jesting, or mad." "Well, as to madness," returned the Captain with a peculiar smile, "you | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588429 | ought to know best, for it's a perquisite of your cloth to pronounce people mad or sane, though some of yourselves are as mad as the worst of us; but in regard to jesting, nothing, I assure you, is further from my mind. Listen!" He rose from the box which had formed his seat, and looked earnestly round on his | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588430 | men. As he stood there, erect, tall, square, powerful, with legs firmly planted, and apart, as if to guard against a lurch of his ship, with his bronzed face flushed, and his dark eye flashing, they all understood that their leader's mind was made up, and that what he had resolved upon, he would certainly attempt to ca... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588431 | he repeated; "it was my purpose on leaving England, as you all know, to sail north as far as the ice would let me; to winter where we should stick fast, and organise an over-ice, or overland journey to the Pole with all the appliances of recent scientific discovery, and all the advantages of knowledge acquired by forme... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588432 | has pleased God to destroy my ship, but my life and my hopes are spared. So are my stores and scientific instruments. I intend, therefore, to carry out my original purpose. I believe that former explorers have erred in some points of their procedure. These errors I shall steer clear of. Former travellers have ignored s... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588433 | appliances. These facts I will recognise; these appliances I will utilise. With a steam yacht, you, my friends, who have shown so much enthusiasm and courage up to this point, would have been of the utmost service to me. As a party in boats, or on foot, you would only hamper my movements. I mean to prosecute this enter... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588434 | alone. I shall join myself to the Eskimos." He paused at this point as if in meditation. Benjy, whose eyes and mouth had been gradually opening to their widest, almost gasped with astonishment as he glanced at his cousins, whose expressive countenances were somewhat similarly affected. "I have had some long talks," con... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588435 | through our interpreter, and from what he says I believe my chances of success are considerable. I am all the more confirmed in this resolution because of the readiness and ability of my first mate to guide you out of the Arctic regions, and your willingness to trust him. Anders has agreed to go with me as interpreter,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588436 | all I want is one other man, because--" "Put me down, father," cried Benjy, in a burst of excitement--"_I'm_ your man." "Hush, lad," said the Captain with a little smile, "of course I shall take you with me and also your two cousins, but I want one other man to complete the party--but he must be a heartily willing man. | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588437 | Who will volunteer?" There was silence for a few moments. It was broken by the doctor. "I for one won't volunteer," he said, "for I'm too much shaken by this troublesome illness to think of such an expedition. If I were well it might be otherwise, but perhaps some of the others will offer." "You can't expect me to do | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588438 | so," said the mate, "for I've got to guide our party home, as agreed on; besides, under any circumstances, I would not join you, for it is simple madness. You'll forgive me, Captain. I mean no disrespect, but I have sailed many years to these seas, and I know from experience that what you propose is beyond the power of | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588439 | man to accomplish." "Experience!" repeated the Captain, quickly. "Has your experience extended further north than this point?" "No, sir, I have not been further north than this--nobody has. It is beyond the utmost limit yet reached, so far as I know." "Well, then, you cannot speak from _experience_ about what I propose... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588440 | have no wish to constrain you, I merely give one of you the chance." Still no one came forward. Every man of the crew of the _Whitebear_ had had more or less personal acquaintance with arctic travel and danger. They would have followed Captain Vane anywhere in the yacht, but evidently they had no taste for what he was ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588441 | to undertake. At last one stepped to the front. It was Butterface, the steward. This intensely black negro was a bulky, powerful man, with a modest spirit and a strange disbelief in his own capacities, though, in truth, these were very considerable. He came forward, stooping slightly, and rubbing his hands in a depreca... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588442 | it bery presumsheeous in dis yer chile for to speak afore his betters, but as no oder man 'pears to want to volunteer, I's willin' to go in an' win. Ob course I ain't a man-- on'y a nigger, but I's a willin' nigger, an' kin do a few small tings-- cook de grub, wash up de cups an' sarsers, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588443 | pull a oar, clean yer boots, fight de Eskimos if you wants me to, an' ginrally to scrimmage around a'most anything. Moreover, I eats no more dan a babby--'sep wen I's hungry--an' I'll foller you, massa, troo tick and tin--to de Nort Pole, or de Sout Pole, or de East Pole, or de West Pole--or any oder pole wotsomediver-... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588444 | same to Butterface, s'long's you'll let 'im stick by you." The crew could not help giving the negro a cheer as he finished this loyal speech, and the Captain, although he would have preferred one of the other men, gladly accepted his services. A few days later the boats were ready and provisioned; adieus were said, hat... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588445 | and soon after Captain Vane and his son and two nephews, with Anders and Butterface, were left to fight their battles alone, on the margin of an unexplored, mysterious Polar sea. CHAPTER FIVE. LEFT TO THEIR FATE. There are times, probably, in all conditions of life, when men feel a species of desolate sadness creeping ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588446 | find it hard to shake off or subdue. Such a time arrived to our Arctic adventurers the night after they had parted from the crew of the wrecked _Whitebear_. Nearly everything around, and much within, them was calculated to foster that feeling. They were seated on the rocky point on the extremity of which their yacht ha... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588447 | them were the deep ravines, broad valleys, black beetling cliffs, grand mountains, stupendous glaciers, and dreary desolation of Greenland. To right and left, and in front of them, lay the chaotic ice-pack of the Arctic sea, with lanes and pools of water visible here and there like lines and spots of ink. Icebergs innu... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588448 | the time was entirely covered with grey and gloomy clouds. Gusts of wind swept over the frozen waste now and then, as if a squall which had recently passed, were sighing at the thought of leaving anything undestroyed behind it. When we add to this, that the wanderers were thinking of the comrades who had just left them... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588449 | as it were, with the civilised world from which they were self-exiled, of the unknown dangers and difficulties that lay before them, and of the all but forlorn hope they had undertaken, there need be little wonder that for some time they all looked rather grave, and were disposed to silence. But life is made up of oppo... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588450 | shade, hard and soft, hot and cold, sweet and sour, for the purpose, no doubt, of placing man between two moral battledores so as to drive the weak and erring shuttlecock of his will right and left, and thus keep it in the middle course of rectitude. No sooner had our adventurers sunk to the profoundest depths of gloom... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588451 | the battledore of brighter influences began to play upon them. It did not, however, achieve the end at once. "I'm in the lowest, bluest, dreariest, grumpiest, and most utterly miserable state of mind I ever was in in all my life," said poor little Benjy Vane, thrusting his hands into his pockets, sitting down on a rock... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588452 | on the waste wilderness, which had only just ceased howling, the very personification of despair. "So's I, massa," said Butterface, looking up from a compound of wet coal and driftwood which he had been vainly trying to coax into a flame for cooking purposes; "I's most 'orribly miserable!" There was a beaming grin on t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588453 | lie direct to his words. "That's always the way with you, Benjy," said the Captain, "either bubblin' over with jollity an' mischief, or down in the deepest blues." "Blues! father," cried the boy, "don't talk of blues--it's the blacks I'm in, the very blackest of blacks." "Ha! jus' like me," muttered Butterface, stickin... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588454 | fire, and giving a blow that any grampus might have envied. The result was that a column of almost solid smoke, which had been for some time rising thicker and thicker from the coals, burst into a bright flame. This was the first of the sweet influences before referred to. "Mind your wool, Flatnose," cried Benjy, as th... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588455 | quickly back. It may be remarked here that the mysterious bond of sympathy which united the spirits of Benjy Vane and the black steward found expression in kindly respect on the part of the man, and in various eccentric courses on the part of the boy--among others, in a habit of patting him on the back, and giving him ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588456 | choice selection of impromptu names, such as Black-mug, Yellow-eyes, Square-jaws, and the like. "What have you got in the kettle?" asked Leo Vandervell, who came up with some dry driftwood at the moment. "Bubble-um-squeak," replied the cook. "What sort o' squeak is that?" asked Leo, as he bent his tall strong frame ove... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588457 | the kettle. "What am it, massa? Why, it am a bit o' salt pork, an' a bit o' dat bear you shooted troo de nose yes'rday, an' a junk o' walrus, an' two puffins, an' some injin corn, a leetil pepper, an' a leetil salt." "Good, that sounds well," said Leo. "I'll go fetch you some more driftwood, for it'll | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588458 | take a deal of boiling, that will, to make it eatable." The driftwood referred to was merely some pieces of the yacht which had been cast ashore by the hurly-burly of ice and water that had occurred during the last tide. No other species of driftwood was to be found on that coast, for the neighbouring region was utterl... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588459 | of trees. "Where has Alf gone to?" asked the Captain, as Leo was moving away. "Oh, he's looking for plants and shells, as usual," answered Leo, with a smile. "You know his heart is set upon these things." "He'll have to set his heart on helping wi' the cargo after supper," said the Captain, drawing a small notebook and... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588460 | from his pocket. A few more of the sweet and reviving influences of life now began to circle round the wanderers. Among them was the savoury odour that arose from the pot of bubble-um-squeak, also the improved appearance of the sky. It was night, almost midnight, nevertheless the sun was blazing in the heavens, and as ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588461 | away like a dark curtain, his cheering rays were by that time gilding the icebergs, and rendering the land-cliffs ruddily. The travellers had enjoyed perpetual daylight for several weeks already, and at that high latitude they could count on many more to come. By the time supper was ready, the depressing influences wer... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588462 | recovered their wonted tone. Indeed it was not to the discredit of the party that they were so much cast down on that occasion, for the parting, perhaps for ever, from the friends with whom they had hitherto voyaged, had much more to do with their sadness than surrounding circumstances or future trials. "What plan do y... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588463 | out, uncle?" asked Alphonse Vandervell, as they sat at supper that night round the kettle. "That depends on many things, lad," replied the Captain, laying down his spoon, and leaning his back against a convenient rock. "If the ice moves off, I shall adopt one course; if it holds fast I shall try another. Then, if you i... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588464 | and carrying along with you such pocket-loads of specimens, plants, rocks, etcetera, as you've brought in this evening, I'll have to build a sort of Noah's ark, or omnibus on sledge-runners, to carry them." "And suppose I don't insist on carrying these things, what then?" "Well," replied the Captain, "in that case I wo... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588465 | the bubble, Benjy." "Wouldn't you rather some of the squeak?" asked the boy. "Both, lad, both--some of everything. Well, as I was saying--and you've a right to know what's running in my head, seeing that you have to help me carry out the plans--I'll give you a rough notion of 'em." The Captain became more serious as he... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588466 | plans. "The Eskimos, you know," he continued, "have gone by what I may call the shore ice, two days' journey in advance of this spot, taking our dogs along with them. It was my intention to have proceeded to the same point in our yacht, and there, if the sea was open, to have taken on board that magnificent Eskimo | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588467 | giant, Chingatok, with his family, and steered away due north. In the event of the pack being impassable, I had intended to have laid the yacht up in some safe harbour; hunted and fished until we had a stock of dried and salted provisions, enough to last us two years, and then to have started northward in sledges, unde... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588468 | guidance of Chingatok, with a few picked men, leaving the rest and the yacht in charge of the mate. The wreck of the _Whitebear_ has, however, forced me to modify these plans. I shall now secure as much of our cargo as we have been able to save, and leave it here _en cache_--" "What sort of cash is that, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588469 | father?" asked Benjy. "You are the best linguist among us, Leo, tell him," said the Captain, turning to his nephew. "`_En cache_' is French for `in hiding,'" returned Leo, with a laugh. "Why do you speak French to Englishmen, father?" said Benjy in a pathetic tone, but with a pert look. "'Cause the expression is a comm... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588470 | side the Atlantic, lad, and you ought to know it. Now, don't interrupt me again. Well, having placed the cargo in security," ("_En cache_," muttered Benjy with a glance at Butterface.) "I shall rig up the sledges brought from England, load them with what we require, and follow up the Eskimos. You're sure, Anders, that ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588471 | the place?" The interpreter declared that he was quite sure. "After that," resumed the Captain, "I'll act according to the information the said Eskimos can give me. D'ye know, I have a strong suspicion that our Arctic giant Chingatok is a philosopher, if I may judge from one or two questions he put and observations he ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588472 | met. He says he has come from a fine country which lies far--very far--to the north of this; so far that I feel quite interested and hopeful about it. I expect to have more talk with him soon on the subject. A little more o' the bubble, lad; really, Butterface, your powers in the way of cookery are wonderful." "Chingat... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588473 | seems to me quite a remarkable fellow for an Eskimo," observed Leo, scraping the bottom of the kettle with his spoon, and looking inquiringly into it. "I, too, had some talk with him--through Anders--when we first met, and from what he said I can't help thinking that he has come from the remote north solely on a voyage... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588474 | into what must be to him the unknown regions of the south. Evidently he has an inquiring mind." "Much like yourself, Leo, to judge from the way you peer into that kettle," said Benjy; "please don't scrape the bottom out of it. There's not much tin to mend it with, you know, in these regions." "Brass will do quite as | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588475 | well," retorted Leo, "and there can be no lack of that while you are here." "Come now, Benjy," said Alf, "that insolent remark should put you on your mettle." "So it does, but I won't open my lips, because I feel that I should speak ironically if I were to reply," returned the boy, gazing dreamily into the quiet counte... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588476 | of the steward. "What are _you_ thinking of, you lump of charcoal?" "Me, massa? me tink dere 'pears to be room for more wittles inside ob me; but as all de grub's eated up, p'r'aps it would be as well to be goin' an' tacklin' suffin' else now." "You're right, Butterface," cried the Captain, rousing himself from a rever... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588477 | say you, comrades? Shall we turn in an' have a nap? It's past midnight." "I'm not inclined for sleep," said Alf, looking up from some of the botanical specimens he had collected. "No more am I," said Leo, lifting up his arms and stretching his stalwart frame, which, notwithstanding his youth, had already developed to a... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588478 | a powerful man. "I vote that we sit up all night," said Benjy, "the sun does it, and why shouldn't we?" "Well, I've no objection," rejoined the Captain, "but we must work if we don't sleep--so, come along." Setting the example, Captain Vane began to shoulder the bags and boxes which lay scattered around with the energy... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588479 | railway porter. The other members of the party were not a whit behind him in diligence and energy. Even Benjy, delicate-looking though he was, did the work of an average man, besides enlivening the proceedings with snatches of song and a flow of small talk of a humorous and slightly insolent nature. CHAPTER SIX. FUTURE... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588480 | to the northward of the spot where the _Whitebear_ had been wrecked there stretched a point of land far out into the Arctic Ocean. It was about thirty miles distant, and loomed hugely bluff and grand against the brilliant sky, as if it were the forefront of the northern world. No civilised eyes had ever beheld that lan... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588481 | Vane knew that, because it lay in latitude north, which was a little beyond the furthest point yet reached by Arctic navigators. He therefore named it Cape Newhope. Benjy thought that it should have been named Butterface-beak, because the steward had been the first to observe it, but his father thought otherwise. About... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588482 | point of land the Eskimos were encamped. According to arrangement with the white men they had gone there, as we have said, in charge of the dogs brought by Captain Vane from Upernavik, as these animals, it was thought, stood much in need of exercise. Here the natives had found and taken possession of a number of desert... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588483 | These rude buildings were the abodes to which the good people migrated when summer heat became so great as to render their snow-huts sloppily disagreeable. In one of the huts sat Chingatok, his arms resting on his knees, his huge hands clasped, and his intelligent eyes fixed dreamily on the lamp-flame, over which his c... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588484 | sincerity. There were many points of character in which this remarkable mother and son resembled each other. Both were earnest--intensely so-- and each was enthusiastically eager about small matters as well as great. In short, they both possessed great though uncultivated minds. The hut they occupied was in some respec... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588485 | height and ten in diameter. The walls were made of flattish stones, moss, and the bones of seals, whales, narwhals, and other Arctic creatures. The stones were laid so that each overlapped the one below it, a very little inwards, and thus the walls approached each other gradually as they rose from the foundation; the t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588486 | slabs of slate-stone. Similar stones covered the floor--one half of which floor was raised a foot or so above the other, and this raised half served for a seat by day as well as a couch by night. On it were spread a thick layer of dried moss, and several seal, dog, and bear skins. Smaller elevations in the corners | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588487 | near the entrance served for seats. The door was a curtain of sealskin. Above it was a small window, glazed, so to speak, with strips of semi-transparent dried intestines sewed together. Toolooha's cooking-lamp was made of soapstone, formed like a clam-shell, and about eight inches in diameter; the fuel was seal-oil, a... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588488 | but Eskimos are smoke-proof. The pot above it, suspended from the roof, was also made of soapstone. Sealskins hung about the walls drying; oily mittens, socks and boots were suspended about on pegs and racks of rib-bones. Lumps of blubber hung and lay about miscellaneously. Odours, not savoury, were therefore prevalent... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588489 | eyes from the flame to his parent's smoke-encircled visage, "they are a most wonderful people, these Kablunets. Blackbeard is a great man--a grand man--but I think he is--" Chingatok paused, shook his head, and touched his forehead with a look of significance worthy of a white man. "Why think you so, my son?" asked the... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588490 | denser cloud than usual went up her nose. "Because he has come here to search for _nothing_." "Nothing, my son?" "Yes--at least that is what he tried to explain to me. Perhaps the interpreter could not explain. He is not a smart man, that interpreter. He resembles a walrus with his brain scooped out. He spoke much, but... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588491 | not understand." "Could not understand?" repeated Toolooha, with an incredulous look, "let not Chingatok say so. Is there _anything_ that passes the lips of man which he cannot understand?" "Truly, mother, I once thought there was not," replied the giant, with a modest look, "but I am mistaken. The Kablunets make me st... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588492 | possible to search for _nothing_," urged Toolooha. "So I said," replied her son, "but Blackbeard only laughed at me." "Did he?" cried the mother, with a much relieved expression, "then let your mind rest, my son, for Blackbeard must be a fool if he laughed at _you_." "Blackbeard is no fool," replied Chingatok. "Has he ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588493 | new lands _here_, as you went to search for them _there_?" asked Toolooha, pointing alternately north and south. "No--if I have understood him. Perhaps the brainless walrus translated his words wrongly." "Is the thing he searches for something to eat?" "Something to drink or wear?" "No, I tell you. It is _nothing_! Yet... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588494 | it _Nort Pole_!" Perhaps it is needless to remind the reader that Chingatok and his mother conversed in their native tongue, which we have rendered as literally as possible, and that the last two words were his broken English for "North Pole!" "Nort Pole!" repeated Toolooha once or twice contemplatively. "Well, he may ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588495 | that he cannot find." "Nay, mother," returned the giant with a soft smile, "if he will search for nothing he is sure to find it!" Chingatok sighed, for his mother did not see the joke. "Blackbeard," he continued with a grave, puzzled manner, "said that this world on which we stand floats in the air like a bird, and spi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588496 | round!" "Then Blackbeard is a liar," said Toolooha quietly, though without a thought of being rude. She merely meant what she said, and said what she meant, being a naturally candid woman. "That may be so, mother, but I think not." "How can the world float without wings?" demanded the old woman indignantly. "If it spin... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588497 | the spinning, and grow giddy?" "And Blackbeard says," continued the giant, regardless of the questions propounded, "that it spins round upon this _Nort Pole_, which he says is not a real thing, but only nothing. I asked Blackbeard--How can a world spin upon nothing?" "And what said he to that?" demanded Toolooha quickl... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588498 | the brainless walrus put my question. There is one little boy--the son I think of Blackbeard--who laughed more than all the rest. He lay down on the ice to laugh, and rolled about as if he had the bowel-twist." "That son of Blackbeard must be a fool more than his father," said Toolooha, casting a look of indignation at... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012588499 | innocent kettle. "Perhaps; but he is not like his father," returned Chingatok meekly. "There are two other chiefs among the Kablunets who seem to me fine men. They are very young and wise. They have learned a little of our tongue from the Brainless One, and asked me some questions about the rocks, and the moss, and the... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.