little Bowers neither burnt nor upset the hoosh: it was up to our wildest
expectations. No one could have eaten more.

After the meal we gasped, we felt so comfortable.

But we had such yarns of home, such plans were made for next Christmas,
and after all we got down our fur sleeping-bags, and for a change we were
quite warm owing to the full amount of food which we so sorely needed.

After the others in my tent were asleep, little Birdie Bowers, bidding me
"Good-night," said, "Teddy, if all is well next Christmas we will get
hold of all the poor children we can and just stuff them full of nice
things, won't we?"

It was unthinkable then that five out of the eight of us would soon be
lying frozen on the Great Ice Barrier, their lives forfeited by a series
of crushing defeats brought about by Nature, who alone metes out success
or failure to win back for those who venture into the heart of that
ice-bound continent.

Our Latitude was now 85 degrees 50 minutes S., we were 8000 feet above
the Barrier. Temperature -8 degrees, with a fresh southerly wind, but we
didn't care that night how hard it blew or whether it was Christmas or
Easter. We had done 17 miles distance and success lay within our grasp
apparently.

On the following day we were up at six and marched a good 15 miles south
with no opposition from crevasses or pressure ridges. The march over the
Plateau continued without incident--excepting that on December 28 my team
had a great struggle to keep up with Captain Scott's.