"Why, the last time I went to the North Pole I took forty-seven thermometers to register the coolth of it, and the mercury not only went down to the very bottom of every one of them, but went down so quickly that it burst through the glass bulb that marked 4006 below zero, and fell eight miles more before it even began to slow up. It was so cold that some milk I carried in a bottle was frozen so hard that it didn't thaw out for sixteen months after I got back, although I kept it in boiling water all the time, and one of the Esquimaux who came up there in midsummer to shoot polar bears had to send for a plumber after his return home to thaw out his neck, which had frozen stiff." "Maybe that is why the Whale charges so much to take people there," suggested Jimmieboy. "It is, exactly. There is no risk about it for him, but he has to eat so much hot coal and other things to warm him up, that really it costs him nearly as much as he gets to make the trip. I don't believe that he clears more than half a dollar on the whole thing, even when he is crowded," said the Imp. "Crowded?" echoed Jimmieboy. "What do you mean by that?" "Crowded? Why, crowded is an English word meaning jamful and two more," said the Imp. "But crowded with what?" queried Jimmieboy. "Why, passengers, of course. What did you suppose? Ink bottles?" "Then he takes more than one passenger at a time," said Jimmieboy. "Certainly he does. He'll hold twenty-five boys of your size in comfort, thirty-five in discomfort, forty-five in an emergency, and fifty at a pinch," said the Imp. "But see here, we are losing a lot of circus. There goes the Educated Scallop out of the ring now. I'm sorry you missed him, for he is a tender." "A what?" "A tender. That is, he is ten times as marvellous as a wonder. Why that Scallop is the finest comic actor you ever saw. His imitation of a party of sharks off manning is simply the most laughable thing I ever saw," said the Imp, enthusiastically. "I wish I could understand half of what you say," said Jimmieboy, looking wistfully at the Imp. "Because if I did, you know, I might guess the rest." "What is it you don't understand now?" asked the Imp. "What is a party of sharks off manning?" queried Jimmieboy. "Did you ever see a man fishing?" questioned the Imp. "Yes." "Well, if a man can fish, why shouldn't a fish man? Sharks can catch men just as easily as men can catch sharks, and the Scallop shows how sharks behave when they catch men--that's all." "I wish I'd seen it; can't you turn back to that page in the book, and have it done all over again?" asked the boy.