strike the iceberg. If it had struck, it would have been broken all
in pieces, and we should have been drowned or frozen, every one of us.
God was kind and good to us, though. The wind was blowing very hard,
and right toward the iceberg. But just as we had got almost up to it,
the wind changed, and blew us away from it.

But I forgot that you do not know what an iceberg is. It is a great
hill of ice. In the North Sea, these ice-hills are often as high as
your church, and sometimes a great deal higher. These hills of ice
are floating along the water there, and when it is foggy or dark, the
sailors cannot always see them. So sometimes the ship strikes them,
and is dashed to pieces. Sometimes it gets between two of these
ice-hills, and gets crushed, as if it was a little boat. Then the men
in the ship have to get out, and jump upon one of the ice-hills. But
they are pretty likely to be frozen to death then.

[Illustration: The Indians.]




THE INDIANS.


In that cold country I saw some Indians. They were dressed in skins.
I never saw such dirty-looking men and women before in all my life,
and I have never seen any such since. They had never seen a ship
before, I should think. I thought they did not know much more than
the white bears. Why, they would sell almost all the clothes they had
on, if we would give them a few pieces of glass, or a nail or two.