THE WORLD OF ICE. 211

the crew until the morning of the day on which it
was acted.

Fred’s duties, as manager and author, upon this
occasion were by no means light, for his troop, being
unaccustomed to study, found the utmost difficulty in
committing the simplest sentences to memory. O’Riley
turned out to be the sharpest among them, but having
agreed to impersonate the First Bear, and having to
act his part in dumb show—hbears not being supposed
capable of speech—his powers of memory had not to
be exerted. Grim was also pretty good; but Davie
Summers could not be got to remember even the
general arrangements of the piece; and as for Buzzby,
he no sooner mastered a line than he forgot the one
before it, and almost gave it up in despair. But by dint
of much study and many rehearsals in secret, under
the superintendence of Fred, and Tom Singleton, who
undertook to assist, they succeeded at last in going
through it with only a few mistakes.

On the morning of the 1st December, while the
most of the crew were away at Red-Snow Valley
cutting moss, Fred collected his corps dramatique
for a last rehearsal in the forecastle, where they were
secure from interruption, the place being so ecld that
no one would willingly go into it except under the
force of necessity. A dim lantern lit up the apart-
ment faintly.

“We must do it without a mistake this time,” said
Fred Ellice, opening his book, and calling upon Grim
to begin.