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to where some dark heavy-looking figures lay motionless beneath the clear ice.

“Do you see?” he said. “These are the bodies of men and women whom the ice-people have caught and frozen to death. If any unfortunate ship is wrecked among the ice-blocks, the ice-people at once flock round it and seize the passengers, and carry them over here and freeze them. They are as wicked and cruel as the mermaids. If I were to leave you for only a second, you would be frozen, and nothing could save you. Now we are coming near the North Pole. Look over there.”

Jack looked away across the ice, and saw a clear pink light that darted up into the sky in bars. It seemed to come from a curious dark lump in the form of a mushroom, which stood up. into the air.

“That is the North Pole,” said his friend, “and the light comes from the old man’s lantern.”

“Does he live there all alone?” asked Jack.

“All alone, and he quarrels with every one. He used to be very good friends with the old man at the South Pole, and they often slid up and down the Pole to see each other. But one