"You haf der great head, Bill, und know somedings or two. Und you know
two und one makes tree--ain't it?"

Bill nodded.

"Und when you haf two dings, you haf not tree dings--ain't it? Now you
follow mit me close und I show you. It takes tree dings to hang. First
ding, you haf to haf der man. Goot! I am der man. Second ding, you haf
to haf der rope. Lawson haf der rope. Goot! Und tird ding, you haf to
haf someding to tie der rope to. Sling your eyes over der landscape und
find der tird ding to tie der rope to? Eh? Vot you say?"

Mechanically they swept the ice and snow with their eyes. It was a
homogeneous scene, devoid of contrasts or bold contours, dreary,
desolate, and monotonous,--the ice-packed sea, the slow slope of the
beach, the background of low-lying hills, and over all thrown the endless
mantle of snow. "No trees, no bluffs, no cabins, no telegraph poles,
nothin'," moaned Red Bill; "nothin' respectable enough nor big enough to
swing the toes of a five-foot man clear o' the ground. I give it up." He
looked yearningly at that portion of Jan's anatomy which joins the head
and shoulders. "Give it up," he repeated sadly to Lawson. "Throw the
rope down. Gawd never intended this here country for livin' purposes,
an' that's a cold frozen fact."

Jan grinned triumphantly. "I tank I go mit der tent und haf a smoke."

"Ostensiblee y'r correct, Bill, me son," spoke up Lawson; "but y'r a
dummy, and you can lay to that for another cold frozen fact. Takes a sea
farmer to learn you landsmen things. Ever hear of a pair of shears? Then
clap y'r eyes to this."