136 THE WORLD OF ICE.

had been engaged in exhausting work in extremely cold
weather. Afterwards, when the dark season set in,
and the crew were confined by the intense cold more
than formerly within the ship, various schemes were set
afoot for passing the time profitably and agrecably.
Among others, a school was started by the captain for
instructing such of the crew as chose to attend in
reading, writing, and arithmetic, and in this hyper-
borean academy Fred Ellice acted as the writing
master, and Tom Singleton as the accountant, The
men were much amused at first at the idea of “ goin’
to school,” and some of them looked vather shy at it;
but O'Riley, after some consideration, came boldly
forward and said, “ Well, boys, bad luck to me if T
don’t think I'll be a scholard afther all. My old
gran'mother used to tell me, whin I refused to go to
the school that was kip be an owld man as tuck
his fees out in murphies and potheen,—says_ she,
‘Ah! ye spalpeen, ye’ll niver be eliverer nor the pig,
ye won't. ‘Ah, then, I hope not,’ says I, ‘for sure
she’s far the cliverest in the house, an’ ye wouldn’t
have me to be cliverer than me own gran’mother,
would ye?’ says I. So I niver wint to school, and
more be token, I éan’t sign me name, and if it was
only to larn how to do that, Pll go and jine; indeed
I will.” So O'Riley joined, and before long every
man in the ship was glad to join, in order to have
something to do.

The doctor also, twice a-week, gave readines from
Shakespeare, a copy of which he had fortunately