higher than ordinary. But ye'll come ben the house and smoke a
pipe, maybe?"

"Thank you, pilot, I don't mind--just for a half hour before I go
out to the ship."

My father thereupon led the way within, and placed an easy chair
for Mr. Gordon under the large hurricane lamp that hung from the
low ceiling, and cast its yellow light about the room. The skipper
glanced rapidly at the dark, old-fashioned furniture, at the
high-backed chairs, cushioned with the skins of seals, the strong
teak-wood sideboard, and the heavy round table, upon which stood a
quaint Dutch spirit bottle and a couple of horn drinking cups. He
looked at the several pictures of ships battling with terrible
storms, and at the pensive porcupine in its dusty glass case, and
then at the array of firearms and harpoons above the door of the
press bed. My dog Selta lay sound asleep upon a large polar-bear
skin before the fire. Had he approached her and looked up the wide
chimney he might have seen there the remains of our winter stock of
smoked geese and hams hanging in the midst of the "reek."

"I suppose you have been sailing foreign a good deal in your time,
pilot?" said Mr. Gordon, when he was seated.

He had got this notion, no doubt, from having observed the many
foreign ornaments and weapons about the room.

"No," said my father, "I hae never been abroad. All my life has
been spent in the Mainland."