The National tribune., 1909-10-28
VII
Ieltcrs Erom a sailor Aunt.

On Board r. S. NJ. S. P. Amazon July
Ie. 1909-Dear "Favorite Niece: On
with the dance; let joy be unconfined!'
..Ring out, wild bells, TO the wild sky!'
"Sbout. We hills, and proclaim the glad
tidjnes TO the world!" We have seen
the Midnight Sun.
1t seems almost too good to be true,
but it is. We have not had this long
and EXPENSIVE trip In vain, tho IT looked
nightly like il when / last wrote you
but have accomplished that for whlch
we really came to this distant iahu.
Aside from the great persohai oIsap
pointment Elizabeth and just couiuh
hear 10 go back home and admit thal
we had been to the Land of the Mid
night sun and hadn't seen the great
performance itself, and had about de-
cided to pretend we had. Perhaps, not
10 tell an out-and-out story about II,
you know. but to cleVerly give the I'M
preston that we had. But, thank
Heaven. the temptation to commit even
thai almost pardonable and rather col
orIess sin has taken itself off into the
limbo. and my recital will now be able
to roll on as il has up to the present
time in the clear waters OF absolute
truth.
When put away my fountain pen
the other evening after finishing my let
ter to you. the Amazon still lying on
North Cape, almost hid from us by the
ram and mist | had in my heart OF
hearts given up all hope of seeing the
midnight sun What Elizabeth thought
do not know for the subject was care
fully avoided--to tell the truth, II WAS
worn out-but know that VIC were
both thoroly stepped in gloom when VIC
said good night to each other anu
sought the comfort of our hot-water
bags already placed between the sheets
of our hunks by the thomghtfuiness tf
Mrs. Jones, who, yoL remember. Is the
stewardesS.
But. my dear when we came on deck
p the next morning that good-fOr- nothing
old Sol was sitting up in the heavens rs
saucy as you please, Shining for all he
was worth. Instantly our depression
fell from US like water from duck 5
back. Hope, radiant creature. once
more took possession of us. and all over
the ship people were saying to one an
other: Isn't it glorious2 Well surely
Sec the sun tonight" etc.
Not since coming TO Norway had we
had a day like it. Nowhere in the blue
heavens could a cloud be seen, and
there was a sort of honesty in
the suns work which made US feel
that he was really in earnest and WASH
going 10 trick us this time. Il was as
If his conscience was at last aroused TO
the enormity of his crime and his bet
ter nature in the ascendancy. In this
gracious humor he touched the great
snow-splashed peaks with the little riv-
ulets like silver threads tricklng down
their sides, his magic wand, which
his sister. the moon, borrowS from him
at night, perhaps, Transforming them
and the entire landscape into a scene
of glorious beauty and grandeur. IL
brought out in vivid greenness the ver-
dure which covered the lower part OF
the rocks, and intensified the green and
yellow of the little houses scattered
here and there.
Some of the small fiords thru which
We passed, with this glorious sun over
everything, are beyond the power Of my
poor pen to describe, and | will not at
tempt 1t. 1 have had painful misgiv-
ings, anyway, lately, that I've been
saying too much about "snow-s -spiashed
rocks" etc; but Norway's trump card
SO to speak, is its scenery, and one is
forced to remain pretty nearly silent ii
1t is ignored.
We reached lovely little Lyngen about
noon on the 18th, and as soon as the
boats could carry us from ship to shore
each man, woman and child on tho
Amazon stood on Norwegian soil
Everyone was smiling and happy, and
considering the fact that We hadn't had
a decent nights sleep for about five
o. nights, everyone looked remarkably
fresh and rested. 1t is curious about
this all-day. Moonlight state of things
The brain appears cheated by this SEM
biance of day. and forgets to call VI
Sleep when bedtime comes around II
seems absurd to retire when it is as
light as at noon, and you do not fee
sleepy, anyway. Yet, after four or five
nights of constant day and little or nc
il out by diminishing the vitality and
|dulling little. perhaps. the keen edge
of ones enthusiasm. You see the little
brown-sailed fishing boats flying around
all night as well as all day, apparently
and when anchored off some town ol
settlement the shouts of children are
heard far beyond those hours when lit.
tie brown-haired and golden-haired kid.
In America are snugly tucked up in bed
and you wonder IL the Norwegians o.
Tromso, Hammerfest, etc, ever seel
the arms of Morpheus. / believe my
self much of the worn-out look you se'
in the faces of the older people 4
caused by just this lack of the prope
amount Of sleep. for altho they hav
the same superfiuity of night in Winte
that they have of day in Summer ant
one would naturally think that in tn
long, dark days and nights which com
upon them then they might make III
this lost rest; yet, you know, when on
has formed the habit of going to be,
: at midnight, for instance, how dIiIicul
IL is TO feel like turning in at an Garlic
hour. Probably just as they get them
selves nicely trained to going TO bed q
a Christian time and sleeping seven O
eight hours this all-day business come
around again, and the only wonder /
me is that they don't "deeamp," Ieav
ing the Land of the Midnight Sun i
solitary possession of its great snoI
rocks, peopled only by the gods an
godesses of the old Morse mythology.
But, dear me, how far / have wan
dercd from Lyngen!
We found only a small settlement o
shore, and among the modest house
scattered here and there the little whit
church, peeping out from among tn
birch-covered hills, backed on bot
sides by snow mountains, made a per
feet picture. Nearly everyone WAS 20
ing TO the Lap settlement, and as Eliz
abeth and l missed the one at Troms
We followed on after the Amazoniail
who led the way. We climbed quite
hill, or long, hilly road, to reach thi.
but the glorious sunshine and the Lowell
wild flowers springing up everywher
along our path helped greatly TO lesse
its fatigue. We saw quantities of tina
pretty little dark blue wild flower whic
we call wild geranium and others whic
were strangers TO Elizabeth and me.
- This road led US to the Lap settle
ment, which lies at the foot OF tn
mountain Goalsevarre, rising 4,150 fee
Altho this settlement is not as large Z
hat F@s...a, n .uaf