Ninth EveningThe air was clear again. Several evenings had passed, and
the Moon was in the first quarter. Again he gave me an outline for
a sketch. Listen to what he told me.
"I have followed the polar bird and the swimming whale to
the eastern coast of Greenland. Gaunt ice-covered rocks and dark
clouds hung over a valley, where dwarf willows and barberry bushes
stood clothed in green. The blooming lychnis exhaled sweet odours.
My light was faint, my face pale as the water lily that, torn from
its stem, has been drifting for weeks with the tide. The
crown-shaped Northern Light burned fiercely in the sky. Its ring
was broad, and from its circumference the rays shot like whirling
shafts of fire across the whole sky, flashing in changing radiance
from green to red. The inhabitants
