第28章 LETTER VII(10)

As our principal object in coming so far was to see an eruption of the Great Geysir,it was of course necessary we should wait his pleasure;in fact,our movements entirely depended upon his.For the next two or three days,therefore,like pilgrims round some ancient shrine,we patiently kept watch;but he scarcely deigned to vouchsafe us the slightest manifestation of his latent energies.Two or three times the cannonading we had heard immediately after our arrival recommenced,--and once an eruption to the height of about ten feet occurred;but so brief was its duration,that by the time we were on the spot,although the tent was not eighty yards distant,all was over.As after every effort of the fountain the water in the basin mysteriously ebbs back into the funnel,this performance,though unsatisfactory in itself,gave us an opportunity of approaching the mouth of the pipe,and looking down into its scalded gullet.In an hour afterwards,the basin was brimful as ever.

Tethered down by our curiosity to a particular spot for an indefinite period,we had to while away the hours as best we could.We played chess,collected specimens,photographed the encampment,the guides,the ponies,and one or two astonished natives.Every now and then we went out shooting over the neighbouring flats,and once Iventured on a longer expedition among the mountains to our left.The views I got were beautiful,--ridge rising beyond ridge in eternal silence,like gigantic ocean waves,whose tumult has been suddenly frozen into stone;--but the dread of the Geysir going off during my absence made me almost too fidgety to enjoy them.The weather luckily remained beautiful,with the exception of one little spell of rain,which came to make us all the more grateful for the sunshine,--and we fed like princes.Independently of the game,duck,plover,ptarmigan,and bittern,with which our own guns supplied us,a young lamb was always in the larder,--not to mention reindeer tongues,skier,--a kind of sour curds,excellent when well made,--milk,cheese whose taste and nature baffles deion,biscuit and bread,sent us as a free gift by the lady of a neighbouring farm.In fact,so noble is Icelandic hospitality,that I really believe there was nothing within fifty miles round we might not have obtained for the asking,had we desired it.As for Fitz,he became quite the enfant gate of a neighbouring family.

Having unluckily caught cold,instead of sleeping in the tent,he determined to seek shelter under a solid roof-tree,and,conducted by our guide Olaf,set off on his pony at bed-time in search of a habitation.The next morning he reappeared so unusually radiant that I could not help inquiring what good fortune had in the meantime befallen him:upon which he gave me such an account of his last night's reception at the farm,that I was almost tempted to bundle tent and beds down the throat of our irritable friend Strokr,and throw myself for the future upon the hospitality of the inhabitants.It is true,I had read in Van Troil of something of the kind,but until now Inever fully believed it.The Doctor shall tell his own history.

"No sooner,"said he,"had I presented myself at the door,and made known my errand,than I was immediately welcomed by the whole family,and triumphantly inducted into the guest quarters:everything the house could produce was set before me,and the whole society stood by to see that I enjoyed myself.As I had but just dined an additional repast was no longer essential to my happiness;but all explanation was useless,and I did my best to give them satisfaction.Immediately on rising from the table,the young lady of the house--(old Van Troil says it is either the mother or the daughter of the house,if she be grown up,who performs this office)--proposed by signs to conduct me to my apartment;taking in one hand a large plate of skier,and in the other a bottle of brandy,she led the way through a passage built of turf and stones to the place where Iwas to sleep.Having watched her deposit--not without misgivings,for I knew it was expected both should be disposed of before morning--the skier by my bedside,and the brandy-bottle under the pillow,I was preparing to make her a polite bow,and to wish her a very good night,when she advanced towards me,and with a winning grace difcult to resist,insisted upon helping me off with my coat,and then,--proceeding to extremities,--with my shoes and stockings.At this most critical part of the proceedings,I naturally imagined her share of the performance would conclude,and that I should at last be restored to that privacy which at such seasons is generally considered appropriate.Not a bit of it.Before I knew where I was,I found myself sitting in a chair,in my shirt,trouserless,while my fair tire-woman was engaged in neatly folding up the ravished garments on a neighbouring chair.She then in the most simple manner in the world,helped me into bed,tucked me up,and having said a quantity of pretty things in Icelandic,gave me a hearty kiss and departed.If,"he added,"you see anything remarkable in my appearance,it is probably because--'This very morn I've felt the sweet surprise Of unexpected lips on sealed eyes;'"by which he poetically intimated the pleasing ceremony which had awaked him to the duties of the day.I think it needless to subjoin that the Doctor's cold did not get better as long as we remained in the neighbourhood,and that,had it not been for the daily increasing fire of his looks,I should have begun to be alarmed at so protracted an indisposition.