it was daylight, old Nukku Matti was sitting on the shores of the
'Land of Nod,' and was fishing for little children with his long
fishing rod. He heard the low words which Little Lasse said to
God, and he immediately drew the boat to himself and laid Little
Lasse to sleep on a bed of rose leaves.

Then Nukku Matti said to one of the Dreams, 'Play with Little
Lasse, so that he does not feel lonesome.'

It was a little dream-boy, so little, so little, that he was less
than Lasse himself; he had blue eyes and fair hair, a red cap
with a silver band, and white coat with pearls on the collar. He
came to Little Lasse and said, 'Would you like to sail round the
world?'

'Yes,' said Lasse in his sleep, 'I should like to.'

'Come, then,' said the dream-boy, 'and let us sail in your pea-
shell boats. You shall sail in Hercules and I shall sail in The
Flea.'

So they sailed away from the 'Land of Nod,' and in a little while
Hercules and The Flea were on the shores of Asia away at the
other end of the world, where the Ice Sea flows through Behring
Straits into the Pacific Ocean. A long way off in the winter mist
they could see the explorer Nordenskiold with his ship Vega
trying to find an opening between the ice. It was so cold, so
cold; the great icebergs glittered strangely, and the huge whales
now lived under the ice, for they could not make a hole through
with their awkward heads. All around on the dreary shore there