The Skerry of Shrieks by Hjalmar Hjorth Boysen

People live even within the Polar Circle, although grown-up folks / are apt to think it a poor sort of life. But to boys the "land of / the midnight sun" is a veritable paradise. Every season of the year / has its own kind of sport; and as schoolmasters are rare birds so / far north, the boys are to a great extent left to follow their / own devices until they are old enough to be sent away to school / in the cities. From morning till night the air is filled with a / screaming host of birds, which whirl in through the fiords like an / approaching snow-storm. The eider-ducks lie gently bobbing upon / the water, the black surf-scoters dive in the surf and make short / work of the young whiting, and the puffins sit in long soldier-like / rows on the rocks, and plunge headlong into the sea at the first / signal of danger. In this glorious region the fish and fowl from / all quarters of the globe seem to have appointed an annual meeting / about New Year's; and the Norwegian peasants, who are dependent / upon the inhabitants of the sea and the air for their living, are / on the lookout for them, and hasten to the coast to give them a / fitting reception.

Harry Winchester's motive, however, for visiting the Arctic / wonderland was quite a different one. He had made the acquaintance / of the Birk boys during the previous summer, and he had struck up / a warm friendship with one of them, named Magnus. His parents, / who lived in New York, had permitted him to accept the invitation / of Mr. Birk to spend the winter with his sons, and Harry was so / completely fascinated with the sports and adventures which every / day offered in abundance that he would have liked to prolong his / stay indefinitely.

Hasselrud, the estate of the Birks, was a fine, old-fashioned / mansion, which peeped out from the dense foliage of chestnut and / maple trees. Mr. Birk conducted a large business in fish and / lumber, and manned every year several boats and sent them to the / Lofoten fisheries. His three sons, Olaf, Magnus, and Edwin, were / brisk and courageous lads, who had been accustomed to danger from / their earliest years, and could handle a gun and manage a sail / as well as any man in that region. Olaf was nineteen years old, / and wore the uniform of a midshipman in the navy, and by courtesy / was styled lieutenant; Magnus, who was sixteen, was a fair-faced, / curly-headed lad, with frank blue eyes, a straight, handsome nose, / and a singular talent for getting into mischief. Edwin was but / twelve years old; but, as he does not figure conspicuously in this / narrative, there is no need of describing him. But altogether the / most important person at Hasselrud, next to Mr. Birk, was Grim / Hering-Luck, a hoary, bow-legged fisherman, who was Mr. Birk's / right-hand man and captain of his boat-guild. Grim had a stern, / deep-wrinkled face, framed in a wreath of grayish whiskers. He / had small, piercing eyes, and bushy, gray-sprinkled hair. On his / head he wore a sou'wester. The seat and knees of his trousers and / the elbows of his coat were adorned with great shiny patches of / leather.

The leathern girdle about his waist did not quite fulfil / its duties as suspenders, but allowed the trousers to slip down / on his hips, leaving some four inches of shirt visible under the / border of the waistcoat. Grim was a gruff old customer, but it / was commonly believed that his bark was worse than his bite. He / liked the bright American boy better than he cared to confess, / and therefore neglected no opportunity for quarrelling with him. / In fact, everybody admired Harry's enterprising spirit and was / entertained by his lively talk. Olaf was fairly dazzled by his / knowledge and experience of the world, and little Edwin copied his / walk and his picturesque recklessness to the extent of his small / ability; but among all the family there was no one who was more / ardently attached to Harry than Magnus. The two were inseparable; / from morning till night they roamed about together, setting traps / for hares and ptarmigan, spearing trout in the shallows of the / river, trawling for mackerel in the salt water, and sometimes / tacking in and out of the fiord in a furious gale. At such times, / however, they were sure to have Grim in the boat, and Grim was a / capital man to have in a boat in case of an emergency. Thus they / spent the beautiful autumn months until the November storms began / to blow, the snow began to fall, and the air, when they looked out / the fiord, was thick and the sky threatening. The great trees bent / in agony and howled in the blast with voices of despair. Then Grim / would begin to investigate and to mend the nets which hung in long / festoons along the walls of the boat-houses, and, with his friendly / grunt, he would say in reply to Magnus' queries:

"Wal, Mester Yallertop, the Lord he looks out fer them as they look / out fer themselves. He puts the cod in the sea, but I never heared / of his puttin' it in yer mouth fer ye. He made the land poor up / here, but he made the sea rich, jest fer to make the average right / in the end. He lets ye starve like a toothless rat if ye have a / taste fer starvin'. But thar ain't no call for anybody to starve / here north, ef he can bait a hook and ain't afeared of bein' late / to his funeral."

"Being late to your own funeral, Grim! " Magnus would exclaim, in / amazement; "how can a man be late to his funeral?"

"Wal, now, Mester Yallertop, that I'll tell ye. Fur that ain't no / uncommon case here north. Suppose ye go out in the mornin' with / the fishin' fleet, and it blows up right lively, and ye don't / never come back again. Then after a week or so the parson reads / the sarvice over yer name and prays fer ye, and the next mornin', / likely as not, yer legs drift ashore, quite independent-like, jest / because the cod found yer tarred top-boots indergestible."