Chapter 27

"Bid _him_ bow down to that which is above him,--
The overruling Infinite,--the Maker,----
Who made him not for worship,--let him kneel,
And we will kneel together."

Byron.

When the bodies had been removed from the cabin, and the limbs of Daggett
were covered with snow, Roswell Gardiner took another look at the
thermometer. It had risen already to twenty degrees above zero. This was
absolutely warmth, compared with the temperature from which the men had
just escaped, and it was felt to be so, in their persons. The fire,
however, was not the only cause of this most acceptable change. One of the
men who had been outside soon came back and reported a decided improvement
in the weather. The wind, which had been coquetting with the north-east
point of the compass for several hours, now blew steadily from that
quarter. An hour later it was found, on examination, that a second
thermometer, which was outside, actually indicated ten above zero! This
sudden and great change came altogether from the wind, which was now in
the warm quarter. The men stripped themselves of most of their skins, and
the fire was suffered to go down, though care was taken that it should not
again be totally extinguished.

We have little pleasure in exhibiting pictures of human suffering; and
shall say but little of the groans and pains that Daggett uttered and
endured, while undergoing that most agonizing process of having the frost
taken out of his system by cold applications. It was the only safe way of
treating his case, however, and as he knew it, he bore his sufferings as
well as man could bear them. Long ere the return of day he was released
from his agony, and was put back into his berth, which had been
comfortably arranged for him, having the almost unheard-of luxury of
sheets, with an additional mattress.

As Stephen remarked, when the men were told to try and get a little sleep,
"There's plenty of berths empty, and each on us can have as many clothes
and as warm a bed as he can ask for, now that so many have hastened away
to their great account, as it might be, in the pride of their youth and
strength."

Activity, the responsibility of command, and the great necessity there had
been for exertion, prevented Roswell from reflecting much on what had
happened, until he lay down to catch a little sleep. Then, indeed, the
whole of the past came over him, in one sombre, terrible picture, and he
had the most lively perception of the dangers from which he had escaped,
as well as of the mercy of God's Providence. Surrounded by the dead, as it
might be, and still uncertain of the fate of the living, his views of the
past and future became much lessened in confidence and hope. The majesty
and