But with dogged perseverance Whinney struggled on, gaining a comma here, and a colon there, until he had mastered his instrument. The result all the world knows,--those deathless lines beginning: "O Aurora! Not only East, but North as well, And West! and South! Th' extraordinary tidings tell! Flash thy bright beams And wave thy lambent paws, Clap thou thy rays In luminous applause." For sheer glory of color the description of the aurora which forms the main part of the ode has never been equalled. And then the solemn close, touching in its modesty. "Tell thou the world, That it remember shall The names of Traprock! Whinney! Swank! et al." Since returning to this country Mr. Whinney has taken out a regular poet's licence and is now turning out verse of the very highest standard. [Illustration: Ode to the Aurora] "What is it?" I asked tenderly. I could feel her flush against my cheek. "Walrus tears." "Walrus tears?" Ah, yes, I remembered. Years ago an old woman in Bjarkoi had told me that the tears of a male walrus if caught fresh, were an infallible love potion.[25] "Like Tristan and Isolde," I murmured. She shook her head, uncomprehendingly. "Drink!" she whispered. Smiling at the superstition, yet unwilling, unable, in fact, to resist the pleading look in her eyes, I loosed the thong and placed the sack to my lips. The next instant she was in my arms! My brain reeled. The stars danced dizzily overhead and were then blotted out. A moment later I became aware of a ludicrous and embarrassing circumstance. Locked in each other's embrace we were sliding down the icy incline of the bowl! We struck fairly in the midst of a group composed of Triplett, Makuik and several others who greeted our arrival with roars of laughter; surely a strange ending to a "crise d'amour." At four-thirty we lighted our tree and had carols, presents and general dancing. At six the feast was served, the heaping ice slabs being placed along the counter of the Kawa which was decked with her full suit of colors and all her extra riding-lights. Pemmican, blubber-steak, seal- and walrus-eyes, hide-salad and guppy-croquettes were supplemented from our waning stores of biscuit, herring, ham, candles and A-P. Even little Kopek was not denied a place and sat near his mother sipping a soapstone cup of modified whale's milk. Swank had compounded a new drink for the occasion which he called "Traprock tea," consisting of A-P shavings dissolved in salad oil with a number of live guppys flapping about on the surface, "to give it animation" as the inventor explained. The animation was certainly not lacking and the fun waxed fast and furious.