noon
We have to apologise humbly for asking you also to fly back a little in time , and plunge once more into the dreary winter , from which , no doubt , you thought you had fairly escaped . One morning toward the beginning of spring , referred to in last chapter , while yet the northern seas were covered with their solid garment , Cheenbuk announced to all whom it might concern that he intended to go off on a long journey to the eastward -- he called it the place where the Great Light rises -- for purposes which he did not see fit publicly to reveal . At that time the Great Light to which he referred had begun to show symptoms of intention to return to the dark regions which it had forsaken for several months . The glimmer on the eastern sky had been increasing perceptibly each day , and at last had reached the point of producing a somewhat rosy twilight for two or three hours before and after noon . King Frost , however , still reigned supreme , and the dog-sledge as yet was the only mode of travelling among the islands or on the sea . `` Why go you towards the rising sun ? '' asked Nazinred when Cheenbuk invited him to be one of the party .