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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Eskimo Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Eskimo Twins
+
+Author: Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
+Posting Date: March 10, 2009 [EBook #3774]
+Release Date: February, 2003
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE ESKIMO TWINS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Lynn Hill. Dedicated to Miriam Kilmer. HTML
+version by Al Haines.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE ESKIMO TWINS
+
+
+by
+
+Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION--THE ESKIMO TWINS
+
+    I.  THE TWINS GO COASTING
+   II.  KOOLEE DIVIDES THE MEAT
+  III.  THE TWINS GO FISHING
+   IV.  THE SNOW HOUSE
+    V.  THE FEAST
+   VI.  THE REINDEER HUNT
+  VII.  WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MENIE AND KOKO WENT HUNTING BY THEMSELVES
+ VIII.  THE WOMAN-BOATS
+   IX.  THE VOYAGE
+    X.  THE SUMMER DAY
+
+SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
+
+
+
+
+THE ESKIMO TWINS
+
+
+This is the true story of Menie and Monnie and their two little dogs,
+Nip and Tup.
+
+Menie and Monnie are twins, and they live far away in the North, near
+the very edge.
+
+They are five years old.
+
+Menie is the boy, and Monnie is the girl. But you cannot tell which is
+Menie and which is Monnie,--not even if you look ever so hard at their
+pictures!
+
+That is because they dress alike.
+
+When they are a little way off even their own mother can't always tell.
+And if she can't, who can?
+
+Sometimes the twins almost get mixed up about it themselves. And then
+it is very hard to know which is Nip and which is Tup, because the
+little dogs are twins too.
+
+Nobody was surprised that the little dogs were twins, because dogs
+often are.
+
+But everybody in the whole village where Menie and Monnie live was
+simply astonished to see twin babies!
+
+They had never known of any before in their whole lives.
+
+Old Akla, the Angakok, or Medicine Man of the village, shook his head
+when he heard about them. He said, "Such a thing never happened here
+before. Seals and human beings never have twins! There's magic in this."
+
+The name of the twins' father was Kesshoo. If you say it fast it sounds
+just like a sneeze.
+
+Their mother's name was Koolee. Kesshoo and Koolee, and Menie and
+Monnie, and Nip and Tup, all live together in the cold Arctic winter in
+a little stone hut, called an "igloo."
+
+In the summer they live in a tent, which they call a "tupik." The
+winters are very long and cold, and what do you think! They have one
+night there that is four whole months long!
+
+For four long months, while we are having Thanksgiving, and Christmas,
+and even Lincoln's Birthday, the twins never once see the sun!
+
+But at last one day in early spring the sun comes up again out of the
+sea, looks at the world for a little while, and then goes out of sight
+again. Each day he stays for a longer time until after a while he
+doesn't go out of sight at all!
+
+Then there are four long months of daylight when there is never any
+bedtime. Menie and Monnie just go to sleep whenever they feel sleepy.
+
+Although many Eskimos think twins bring bad luck, Kesshoo and Koolee
+were very glad to have two babies.
+
+They would have liked it better still if Monnie had been a boy, too,
+because boys grow up to hunt and fish and help get food for the family.
+
+But Kesshoo was the best hunter and the best kyak man in the whole
+village. So he said to Koolee, "I suppose there must be girls in the
+world. It is no worse for us than for others."
+
+So because Kesshoo was a brave fisherman and strong hunter, and because
+Koolee was clever in making clothing and shoes out of the skins of the
+animals which he brought home, the twins had the very best time that
+little Eskimo children can have.
+
+And that is quite a good time, as you will see if you read all about it
+in this book.
+
+
+
+
+I.  THE TWINS GO COASTING
+
+THE TWINS GO COASTING
+
+I.
+
+
+One spring morning, very early, while the moon still shone and every
+one else in the village was asleep, Menie and Monnie crept out of the
+dark entrance of their little stone house by the sea.
+
+The entrance to their little stone house was long and low like a
+tunnel. The Twins were short and fat. But even if they were short they
+could not stand up straight in the tunnel.
+
+So they crawled out on all fours. Nip and Tup came with them. Nip and
+Tup were on all fours, too, but they had run that way all their lives,
+so they could go much faster than the twins. They got out first.
+
+Then they ran round in circles in the snow and barked at the moon. When
+Menie and Monnie came out of the hole, Tup jumped up to lick Monnie's
+face. He bumped her so hard that she fell right into the snowbank by
+the entrance.
+
+Monnie didn't mind a bit. She just put her two fat arms around Tup, and
+they rolled over together in the snow.
+
+Monnie had on her fur suit, with fur hood and mittens, and it was hard
+to tell which was Monnie and which was Tup as they tumbled in the snow
+together.
+
+Pretty soon Monnie picked herself up and shook off the snow. Then Tup
+shook himself, too. Menie was rolling over and over down the slope in
+front of the little stone house. His head was between his knees and his
+hands held his ankles, so he rolled just like a ball.
+
+Nip was running round and round him and barking with all his might.
+They made strange shadows on the snow in the moonlight.
+
+Monnie called to Menie. Menie straightened himself out at the bottom of
+the slope, picked himself up and ran back to her.
+
+"What shall we play?" said Monnie.
+
+"Let's get Koko, and go to the Big Rock and slide downhill," said Menie.
+
+"All right," said Monnie. "You run and get your sled."
+
+Menie had a little sled which his father had made for him out of
+driftwood. No other boy in the village had one. Menie's father had
+searched the beach for many miles to find driftwood to make this sled.
+
+The Eskimos have no wood but driftwood, and it is so precious that it
+is hardly ever used for anything but big dog sledges or spears, or
+other things which the men must have.
+
+Most of the boys had sleds cut from blocks of ice. Menie's sled was
+behind the igloo. He ran to get it, and then the twins and the
+pups--all four--started for Koko's house.
+
+Koko's house was clear at the other end of the village. But that was
+not far away, for there were only five igloos in the whole town.
+
+First there was the igloo where the twins lived. Next was the home of
+Akla, the Angakok, and his two wives. Then there were two igloos where
+several families lived together. Last of all was the one where Koko and
+his father and mother and baby brother lived.
+
+Koko was six. He was the twins' best friend.
+
+
+II.
+
+The air was very still. There was not a sound anywhere except the
+barking of the pups, the voices of Menie and Monnie, and the creaking
+sound of the snow under their feet as they ran.
+
+The round moon was sailing through the deep blue sky and shining so
+bright it seemed almost as light as day.
+
+There was one window in each igloo right over the tunnel entrance, and
+these windows shone with a dull yellow light.
+
+In front of the village lay the sea. It was covered with ice far out
+from shore. Beyond the ice was the dark water out of which the sun
+would rise by and by.
+
+There was nothing else to be seen in all the twins' world. There were
+no trees, no bushes even; nothing but the white earth, the shadows of
+the rocks and the snow-covered igloos, the bright windows, and the moon
+shining over all.
+
+
+III.
+
+Menie and Monnie soon reached Koko's igloo. Menie and Nip got there
+first. Monnie came puffing along with Tup just a moment after.
+
+Then the twins dropped on their hands and knees in front of Koko's hut,
+and stuck their heads into the tunnel. Nip and Tup stuck their heads
+in, too.
+
+They all four listened. There was not a sound to be heard except loud
+snores! The snores came rattling through the tunnel with such a
+frightful noise that the twins were almost scared.
+
+"They sleep out loud, don't they?" whispered Monnie.
+
+"Let's wake them up," Menie whispered back.
+
+Then the twins began to bark. "Ki-yi, ki-yi, ki-yi, ki-yi," just like
+little dogs!
+
+Nip and Tup began to yelp, too. The snores and the yelps met in the
+middle of the tunnel and the two together made such a dreadful sound
+that Koko woke up at once. When he heard four barks he knew right away
+that it must be the twins and the little dogs.
+
+So he stuck his head into the other end of the tunnel and called, "Keep
+still. You'll wake the baby! I'll be there in a minute."
+
+Very soon Koko popped out of the black hole. He was dressed in a fur
+suit and mittens just like the twins.
+
+
+IV.
+
+The three children went along together toward the Big Rock. Monnie rode
+on the sled, and Menie and Koko pulled it. The Big Rock was very
+straight up and down on one side, and long and slanting on the other.
+The twins were going to coast down the slanting side.
+
+They climbed to the top, and Menie had the first ride. He coasted down
+on his stomach with his little reindeer-skin kamiks (shoes) waving in
+the air.
+
+Next Koko had a turn. What do you think he did? He stood straight up on
+the sled with the leather cord in his hand, and slid down that way! But
+then, you see, he was six.
+
+When Monnie's turn came she wanted to go down that way, too. But Menie
+said, "No. You'd fall off and bump your nose! You have hardly any nose
+as it is, and you'd better save it!"
+
+"I have as much nose as you have, anyway," said Monnie.
+
+"Mine is bigger! I'm a boy!" said Menie.
+
+Koko measured their noses with his finger.
+
+"They are just exactly alike," he said.
+
+Monnie turned hers up at Menie and said, "What did I tell you?"
+
+Menie never said another word about noses. He just changed the subject.
+He said, "Let's all slide down at once."
+
+Koko and Menie sat down on the sled. Monnie sat on Menie. Then they
+gave a few hitches to the sled and off they went.
+
+Whiz! How they flew!
+
+The pups came running after them. In some places where it was very
+slippery the pups coasted, too! But they did not mean to. They did not
+like it. The sled was almost at the end of the slide when it struck a
+piece of ice. It flew around sideways and spilled all the children in
+the snow.
+
+Just then Nip and Tup came sliding along behind them. They couldn't
+stop, so there they all were in a heap together, with the dogs on top!
+
+Menie rolled over and sat up in the snow. He was holding on to the end
+of his nose. "Iyi, iyi!" he howled, "I bumped my nose on a piece of
+ice!"
+
+Monnie sat up in the snow, too. She pointed her fur mitten at Menie's
+nose and laughed. "Don't you know you haven't much nose?" she said.
+"You ought to be more careful of it!"
+
+Koko kicked his feet in the air and laughed at Menie, and the little
+dogs barked. Menie thought he'd better laugh, too. He had just let go
+of his nose to begin when all of a sudden the little dogs stopped
+barking and stood very still!
+
+Their hair stood up on their necks and they began to growl!
+
+"Hark, the dogs see something," said Menie.
+
+Monnie and Koko stopped laughing and listened. They could not hear
+anything. They could not see anything. Still Nip and Tup growled. The
+twins and Koko were children of brave hunters, so, although they were
+scared, they crept very quietly to the side of the Big Rock and peeped
+over.
+
+Just that minute there was a dreadful growl! "Woof!" It was very loud,
+and very near, and down on the beach a shadow was moving! It was the
+shadow of a great white BEAR!
+
+He was looking for fish and was cross because everything was frozen,
+and he could not find any on the beach.
+
+The moment they saw him, the twins and Koko turned and ran for home as
+fast as ever their short legs could go! They did not even stop to get
+the precious sled. They just ran and ran.
+
+Nip and Tup ran, too, with their ears back and their little tails stuck
+straight out behind them!
+
+If they had looked back, they would have seen the bear stand up on his
+hind legs and look after them, then get down on all fours and start
+toward the Big Rock on a run.
+
+But neither the children nor the little dogs looked back! They just ran
+with all their might until they reached the twins' igloo. Then they all
+dived into the tunnel like frightened rabbits.
+
+
+V.
+
+When they came up in the one little room of the igloo at the other end
+of the tunnel Kesshoo and Koolee were just crawling out of the warm fur
+covers of their bed. Menie and Monnie and Koko and the little dogs all
+began to talk at once.
+
+The moment the twins' father and mother heard the word--bear--they
+jumped off the sleeping-bench and began to put on their clothes.
+
+They both wore fur trousers and long kamiks, with coats of fur, so they
+looked almost as much alike in their clothes as the twins did in theirs.
+
+The mother always wore her hair in a topknot on top of her head, tied
+with a leather thong. But now she wanted to make the bear think she was
+a man, too, so she pulled it down and let it hang about her face, just
+as her husband did.
+
+In two minutes they were ready. Then the father reached for his lance,
+the mother took her knife, and they all crawled out of the tunnel.
+
+The father went first, then the mother, then the three children and the
+pups. At the opening of the tunnel the father stopped, and looked all
+around to see if the bear were near.
+
+The dogs in the village knew by this time that some strange animal was
+about, and the moment Kesshoo came out into the moonlight and started
+for the Big Rock, all the dogs ran, too, howling like a pack of wolves.
+
+Kesshoo shouted back to his wife, "There really is a bear! I see him by
+the Big Rock; call the others."
+
+So she sent Monnie into the igloo of the Angakok, and Menie and Koko
+into the next huts. She herself screamed, "A bear! A bear!" into the
+tunnel of Koko's hut.
+
+The people in the houses had heard the dogs bark and were already
+awake. Soon they came pouring out of their tunnels armed with knives
+and lances. The women had all let down their hair, just as the twins'
+mother did. Each one carried her knife.
+
+They all ran toward the Big Rock, too. Far ahead they could see the
+bear, and the dogs bounding along, and Kesshoo running with his lance
+in his hand.
+
+Then they saw the dogs spring upon the bear. The bear stood up on his
+hind legs and tried to catch the dogs and crush them in his arms. But
+the dogs were too nimble. The bear could not catch them.
+
+When Kesshoo came near, the bear gave a great roar, and started for
+him. The brave Kesshoo stood still with his lance in his hand, until
+the bear got quite near. Then he ran at the bear and plunged the lance
+into his side. The lance pierced the bear's heart. He groaned, fell to
+the ground, rolled over, and was still.
+
+Then how everybody ran! Koko's mother had her baby in her hood, where
+Eskimo mothers always carry their babies. She could not run so fast as
+the others. The Angakok was fat, so he could not keep up, but he
+waddled along as fast as he could.
+
+"Hurry, hurry," he called to his wives. "Bespeak one of his hind legs
+for me."
+
+Menie and Monnie and Koko had such short legs they could not go very
+fast either, so they ran along with the Angakok, and Koko's mother, and
+Nip and Tup.
+
+When they reached the bear they found all the other people crowded
+around it. Each one stuck his fingers in the bear's blood and then
+sucked his fingers. This was because they wanted all bears to know how
+they longed to kill them. As each one tasted the blood he called out
+the part of the bear he would like to have.
+
+The wives of the Angakok cried, "Give a hind leg to the Angakok."
+
+"The kidneys for Koko," cried Koko's mother when she stuck in her
+finger. "That will make him a great bear-hunter when he is big."
+
+"And I will have the skin for the twins' bed," said their mother.
+
+Kesshoo promised each one the part he asked for. An Eskimo never keeps
+the game he kills for himself alone. Every one in the village has a
+share.
+
+The bear was very large. He was so large that though all the women
+pulled together they could not drag the body back to the village. The
+men laughed at them, but they did not help them.
+
+So Koolee ran back for their sledge and harnesses for the dogs. Koko
+and Menie helped her catch the dogs and hitch them to the sledge.
+
+It took some time to catch them for the dogs did not want to work. They
+all ran away, and Tooky, the leader of the team, pretended to be sick!
+Tooky was the mother of Nip and Tup, and she was a very clever dog.
+While Koolee and Koko and Menie were getting the sledge and dog-team
+ready, the rest of the women set to work with their queer crooked
+knives to take off the bear's skin. The moon set, and the sky was red
+with the colors of the dawn before this was done.
+
+At last the meat was cut in pieces and Kesshoo and Koko's father held
+the dogs while the women heaped it on the sledge. The dogs wanted the
+meat. They jumped and howled and tried to get away.
+
+When everything was ready, Koolee cracked the whip at the dogs. Tooky
+ran ahead to her place as leader, the other dogs began to pull, and the
+whole procession started back to the village, leaving a great red stain
+on the clean white snow where the bear had been killed.
+
+Last of all came the twins and Koko. They had loaded the bear's skin on
+Menie's sled.
+
+"It's a woman's work to pull the meat home. We men just do the hunting
+and fishing," Menie said to Koko. They had heard the men say that.
+
+"Yes, we found the bear," Koko answered. "Monnie can pull the skin
+home."
+
+And though Monnie had found the bear just as much as they had, she
+didn't say a word. She just pulled away on the sled, and they all
+reached the igloo together just as the round red sun came up out of the
+sea, and threw long blue shadows far across the fields of snow.
+
+
+
+
+II.  KOOLEE DIVIDES THE MEAT
+
+KOOLEE DIVIDES THE MEAT
+
+I.
+
+
+The first thing that was done after they got the sledge back to the
+village was to feed the dogs. The dogs were very hungry; they had
+smelled the fresh meat for a long time without so much as a bite of it,
+and they had had nothing to eat for two whole days. They jumped about
+and howled again and got their harnesses dreadfully tangled.
+
+Kesshoo unharnessed them and gave them some bones, and while they were
+crunching them and quarreling among themselves, Koolee crawled into the
+igloo and brought out a bowl. The bowl was made of a hollowed-out
+stone, and it had water in it.
+
+"This is for a charm," said Koolee. "If you each take a sip of water
+from this bowl my son will always have good luck in spying bears!"
+
+She passed the bowl around, and each person took a sip of the water.
+When Menie's turn came he took a big, big mouthful, because he wanted
+to be very brave, indeed, and find a bear every week. But he was in too
+much of a hurry. The water went down his "Sunday-throat" and choked
+him! He coughed and strangled and his face grew red. Koolee thumped him
+on the back.
+
+"That's a poor beginning for a great bear-hunter," she said.
+
+Everybody laughed at Menie. Menie hated to be laughed at. He went away
+and found Nip and Tup. They wouldn't laugh at him, he knew. He thought
+he liked dogs better than people anyway.
+
+Nip and Tup were trying to get their noses into the circle with the
+other dogs, but the big dogs snapped at them and drove them away, so
+Menie got some scraps and fed them.
+
+Meanwhile Koolee stood by the sledge and divided the meat among her
+neighbors. First she gave one of the hind legs to the wives of the
+Angakok, because he always had to have the best of everything. She gave
+the kidneys to Koko's mother. To each one she gave just the part she
+had asked for. When each woman had been given her share, Kesshoo took
+what was left and put it on the storehouse.
+
+The storehouse wasn't really a house at all. It was just a great stone
+platform standing up on legs, like a giant's table. The meat was placed
+on the top of it, so the dogs could not reach it, no matter how high
+they jumped.
+
+
+II.
+
+When the rest of the meat was taken care of, Koolee took the bear's
+head and carried it into the igloo.
+
+All the people followed her. Then Koolee did a queer thing. She placed
+the head on a bench, with the nose pointing toward the Big Rock,
+because the bear had come from that direction. Then she stopped up the
+nostrils with moss and grease. She greased the bear's mouth, too.
+
+"Bears like grease," she said. "And if I stop up his nose like that
+bears will never be able to smell anything. Then the hunters can get
+near and kill them before they know it." You see Koolee was a great
+believer in signs and in magic. All the other people were too.
+
+She called to the twins, "Come here, Menie and Monnie."
+
+The twins had come in with the others, but they were so short they were
+out of sight in the crowd. They crawled under the elbows of the grown
+people and stood beside Koolee.
+
+"Look, children," she said to them, "your grandfather, who is dead,
+sent you this bear. He wants you to send him something. In five days
+the bear's spirit will go to the land where your grandfather's spirit
+lives. What would you like to have the bear's spirit take to your
+grandfather for a gift?"
+
+"I'll send him the little fish that father carved for me out of bone,"
+said Menie. He squirmed through the crowd and got it from a corner of
+his bed and brought it to his mother. She put it on the bear's head.
+
+Monnie gave her a leather string with a lucky stone tied to it. Koolee
+put that on the bear's head too.
+
+Then she said, "There! In five days' time the bear's spirit will give
+the shadows of these things to your grandfather. Then we can eat the
+head, but not until we are sure the bear's spirit has reached the home
+of the Dead."
+
+"That is well," the Angakok said to the twins, when Koolee had
+finished. "Your grandfather will be pleased with your presents, I know.
+Your grandfather was a just man. I knew him well. He always paid great
+respect to me. Whenever he brought a bear home he gave me not only a
+hind leg, but the liver as well! I should not be surprised if he sent
+the bear this way, knowing how fond I am of bear's liver."
+
+The Angakok placed his hand on his stomach and rolled up his eyes. "But
+times are not what they once were," he went on. "People care now only
+for their own stomachs! They would rather have the liver themselves
+than give it to the Angakok! They will be sorry when it is too late."
+
+He shook his head and heaved a great sigh. Koolee looked at Kesshoo.
+She was very anxious. Kesshoo went out at once to the storehouse. He
+climbed to the top and got the liver.
+
+By this time all the people had crawled out of the igloo again, and
+were ready to carry home their meat. Kesshoo ran to the Angakok and
+gave him the bear's liver. The Angakok handed it to one of his wives to
+carry. The other one already had the bear's leg. He said to Kesshoo,
+"You are a just man, like your father. I know the secrets of the sun,
+moon, and stars. You know your duty! You shall have your reward." He
+looked very solemn and waddled away toward his igloo with the two wives
+behind him carrying the meat. All the rest of the people followed after
+him and went into their own igloos.
+
+
+
+
+III.  THE TWINS GO FISHING
+
+THE TWINS GO FISHING
+
+I.
+
+
+When the people had all gone away, Menie and Monnie sat down on the
+side of the sledge. Nip and Tup were busy burying bones in the snow.
+The other dogs had eaten all they wanted to and were now lying down
+asleep in the sun, with their noses on their paws.
+
+Everything was still and cold. It was so still you could almost hear
+the silence, and so bright that the twins had to squint their eyes. In
+the air there was a faint smell of cooking meat.
+
+Menie sniffed. "I'm so hungry I could eat my boots," he said.
+
+"There are better things to eat than boots," Monnie answered. "What
+would you like best of everything in the world if you could have it?"
+
+"A nice piece of blubber from a walrus or some reindeer tallow," said
+Menie.
+
+"Oh, no," Monnie cried. "That isn't half as good as reindeer's stomach,
+or fishes' eyes! Um-m how I love fishes' eyes! I tell you, Menie, let's
+get something to eat and then go fishing, before the sun goes down!"
+
+"All right," said Menie. "Let's see if Mother won't give us a piece of
+bear's fat! That is almost as good as blubber or fishes' eyes."
+
+
+II.
+
+They dived into the igloo. Their mother was standing beside the oil
+lamp, putting strands of dried moss into the oil. This lamp was their
+only stove and their only light. It didn't look much like our stoves.
+It was just a piece of soapstone, shaped something like a clamshell. It
+was hollowed out so it would hold the oil. All along the shallow side
+of the pan there were little tendrils of dried moss, like threads.
+These were the wicks.
+
+Over the fire pan there was a rack, and from the rack a stone pan hung
+down over the lamp flame. It was tied by leather thongs to the rack. In
+the pan a piece of bear's meat was simmering. The fire was not big
+enough to cook it very well, but there was a little steam rising from
+it, and it made a very good smell for hungry noses.
+
+"We're hungry enough to eat our boots," Menie said to his mother.
+
+"You must never eat your boots; you have but one pair!" his mother
+answered. She pinched Menie's cheek and laughed at him.
+
+Then she cut two chunks of fat from a piece of bear's meat which lay on
+the bench. She gave one to each of the twins. "Eat this, and soon you
+can have some cooked meat," she said. "It isn't quite done yet."
+
+"We don't want to wait for the cooked meat," cried Monnie. "We want to
+go fishing before the sun is gone. Give us more fat and we'll eat it
+outside."
+
+"You may go fishing if your father will go with you and cut holes for
+you in the ice," said her mother.
+
+Koolee cut off two more pieces of fat. The twins took a piece in each
+hand. Then their mother reached down their own little fishing rods,
+which were stuck in the walls of the igloo. The twins had bear's meat
+in both hands. They didn't see how they could manage the fishing rods
+too.
+
+But Menie thought of a way. "I'll show you how," he said to Monnie. He
+held one chunk of meat in his teeth! In his left hand he held the
+fishing rod, in his right he carried the other piece of meat!
+
+Monnie did exactly what Menie did, and then they crawled down into the
+tunnel.
+
+
+III.
+
+The twins had some trouble getting out of the tunnel because both their
+hands were full. And besides the fishing rods kept getting between
+their legs. When they got outside they both took great bites of the
+bear's fat.
+
+Kesshoo was hanging the dogs' harnesses up on a tall pole, where the
+dogs could not get them. The pole was eight feet long, and it was made
+of the tusk of a narwhal. The harnesses were made of walrus thongs and
+the dogs would eat them if they had a chance. That was the reason
+Kesshoo hung them out of reach. The twins ran to their father at once.
+They began to tell him that they wanted to go fishing right away before
+the sun went down but their mouths were so full they couldn't get the
+words out!
+
+"Mm-m-m-m," Menie began, chewing with all his might!
+
+Then Monnie did a shocking thing! She swallowed her meat whole, she was
+in such hurry! It made a great lump going down her throat! It almost
+choked her. But she shut her eyes, jerked her head forward, and got it
+down!
+
+"Will you make two holes in the ice for us to fish through?" she said.
+She got the words out first! Then she took another bite of meat.
+
+"Have you got your lines ready, and anything for bait?" asked their
+father.
+
+By this time Menie had swallowed his mouthful too. He said, "We can
+take a piece of bear's meat for bait. The lines and hooks are ready."
+
+Kesshoo looked at the lines. The rods were very short. They were made
+of driftwood with a piece of bone bound to the end by tough thongs.
+
+There was a hole in the end of the bone, and through this hole the line
+was threaded. The line was made of braided reindeer thongs. On the end
+of the line was a hook carved out of bone.
+
+"Your lines are all right," said Kesshoo. "Come along."
+
+He led the way down to the beach. The twins came tumbling after him,
+and I am sorry to tell you they gobbled their meat all the way! After
+the twins came Nip and Tup. The ice was very thick. Kesshoo and the
+twins and the pups walked out on it quite a distance from the shore.
+
+Kesshoo cut two round holes in the ice. One was for Menie and one for
+Monnie. The holes were not big enough for them to fall into.
+
+By this time the twins had eaten all their meat except some small
+pieces which they saved for bait. They each put a piece of meat on the
+hook. Then they squatted down on their heels and dropped the hooks into
+the holes.
+
+Kesshoo went back to the village, and left them there. "Don't stay out
+too long," he called back to them.
+
+
+IV.
+
+The twins sat perfectly still for a long time. Nip sat beside Menie,
+and Tup sat beside Monnie. It grew colder and colder. The sun began to
+drop down toward the sea again. At last it rested like a great round
+red wheel right on the Edge of the World!
+
+Slowly, slowly it sank until only a little bit of the red rim showed;
+then that too was gone. Great splashes of red color came up in the sky
+over the place where it had been.
+
+Still the twins sat patiently by their holes. It grew darker and
+darker. The colors faded. The stars began to twinkle, but the twins did
+not move. Nip and Tup ran races on the ice, and rolled over each other
+and barked.
+
+At last--all of a sudden--there was a fearful jerk on Monnie's line! It
+took her by surprise. The little rod flew right out of her hands!
+Monnie flung herself on her stomach on the ice and caught the rod just
+as it was going down the hole! She held on hard and pulled like
+everything.
+
+"I believe I've caught a whale," she panted.
+
+But she never let go! She got herself right side up on the ice,
+somehow, and pulled and pulled on her line.
+
+"Let me pull him in!" cried Menie. He tried to take her rod.
+
+"Get away," screamed Monnie. "I'll pull in my own fish."
+
+Menie danced up and down with excitement, still holding his own rod.
+The pups danced and barked too. Monnie never looked at any of them. She
+kept her eyes fixed on the hole and pulled.
+
+At last she shrieked, "I've got him, I've got him!" And up through the
+hole came a great big codfish!
+
+My! how he did flop around on the ice! Nip and Tup were scared. They
+ran for home at the first flop.
+
+"Let's go home now," said Monnie. "I want to show my fine big fish to
+Mother."
+
+But Menie said, "Wait a little longer till I catch one! I'll give you
+one eye out of my fish if you will."
+
+Monnie waited. She put another piece of meat on her hook and dropped it
+again into the hole. After a while she said, "You can keep your old eye
+if you get it. It's so dark the fish can't see to get themselves caught
+anyway. I'm cold. I'm going home."
+
+Menie got up very slowly and pulled up his line.
+
+As they turned toward the shore, Monnie cried out, "Look, look! The sky
+is on fire!" It looked like it, truly!
+
+Great white streamers were flashing from the Edge of the World, clear
+up into the sky! They danced like flames. Sometimes they shot long
+banners of blue or green fire up to the very stars. Overhead the sky
+shone red as blood. The stars seemed blotted out.
+
+The twins had seen many wonderful things in the sky, but never such
+color as this. Their eyes grew as round and big and popping as those of
+Monnie's codfish, while they watched the long banners join themselves
+into a great waving curtain of color that hung clear across the heavens.
+
+"What is it? Oh, what is it?" they gasped. They were too astonished to
+move, and they were a good deal frightened, too. They never knew the
+sky could act like that.
+
+Monnie felt her black hair rise under her little fur hood. She seized
+Menie's coat. "Do you suppose the world is going to be burned up?" she
+said.
+
+Just then they heard a voice calling, "Menie, Monnie, where are you?"
+
+"Here we are," they answered. Their teeth were chattering with cold and
+fright, and they ran up the slope and flung themselves into their
+mother's arms.
+
+"Oh, Mother, what is the matter with the sky?" they gasped.
+
+Then Koolee looked up too. The long streamers were still flinging
+themselves up toward the red dome overhead.
+
+We call this the "aurora," or "northern lights," and know that
+electricity causes it, but the twins' mother couldn't know that. She
+told them just what had been told her when she was a little girl.
+
+She said, "That is the dance of the Spirits of the Dead! Haven't you
+ever seen it before?"
+
+"Not like this," said the twins. "This is so big, and so red!"
+
+"The sky is not often so bright," said Koolee. "Some say it is the
+spirits of little children dancing and playing together in the sky!
+They will not hurt you. You need not be afraid. See how they dance in a
+ring all around the Edge of the World! They look as if they were having
+fun."
+
+"It goes around the Edge of the World just like the flames around our
+lamp," said Menie. "Maybe it's the Giants' lamp!"
+
+Menie and Monnie believed in Giants. So did their mother. They thought
+the Giants lived in the middle of the Great White World, where the snow
+never melts.
+
+The thought of the Giants scared them all. The twins gave the fish to
+their mother, and then they all three scuttled up the snowy slope
+toward the bright window of their igloo just as fast as they could go.
+When they got inside they found some hot bear's meat waiting for them,
+and Monnie had both the eyes from her fish to eat. But she gave one to
+Menie.
+
+When they were warmed and fed, they pulled off their little fur suits,
+crawled into the piles of warm skins on the sleeping bench, and in two
+minutes were sound asleep.
+
+
+
+
+IV.  THE SNOW HOUSE
+
+THE SNOW HOUSE
+
+I.
+
+
+It is very hard to tell what day it is, or what hour in the day, in a
+place where the days and nights are all mixed up, and where there are
+no clocks.
+
+Menie and Monnie had never seen a clock in their whole lives. If they
+had they would have thought it was alive, and perhaps would have been
+afraid of it.
+
+But people everywhere in the world get sleepy, so the Eskimos sometimes
+count their time by "sleeps." Instead of saying five days ago, they say
+"five sleeps" ago.
+
+The night after the bear was killed it began to snow. The wind howled
+around the igloo and piled the snow over it in huge drifts.
+
+The dogs were buried under it and had to be dug out, all but Nip and
+Tup. They stayed inside with the twins and slept in their bed.
+
+The twins and their father and mother were glad to stay in the warm hut.
+
+At last the snow stopped, the air cleared, and the twins and Kesshoo
+went out. Koolee stayed in the igloo.
+
+She sat on her sleeping bench upon a pile of soft furs. A bear's skin
+was stretched up on the wall behind her. She had a cozy nest to work in.
+
+The lamp stood on the bench beside her. She was making a beautiful new
+suit for Menie. It was made of fawn-skin as soft as velvet, and the
+hood and sleeves were trimmed with white rabbit's fur.
+
+Her thimble was made of ivory, and her needle too. Her thread was a
+fine strip of hide. There was a bunch of such thread beside her.
+
+Soon Kesshoo came in, bringing with him a dried fish and a piece of
+bear's meat, from the storehouse.
+
+Koolee looked up from her sewing. "Isn't it five sleeps since you
+killed the bear?" she said.
+
+Kesshoo counted on his fingers. "Yes," he said, "it is five sleeps."
+
+"Then it is time to eat the bear's head," said Koolee. "His spirit is
+now with our fathers."
+
+"Why not have a feast?" said Kesshoo. "There hasn't been any fresh meat
+in the village since the bear was killed, and I don't believe the rest
+have had anything to eat but dried fish. We have plenty of bear's meat
+still."
+
+Koolee hopped down off the bench and put some more moss into the lamp.
+
+"You bring in the meat," she said, "and tell the twins to go to all the
+igloos and invite the people to come at sunset."
+
+"All right," Kesshoo answered, and he went out at once to the
+storehouse to get the meat.
+
+
+II.
+
+When he came out of the tunnel, Kesshoo found the twins trying to make
+a snow house for the dogs. They weren't getting on very well.
+
+Kesshoo could make wonderful snow houses. He had made a beautiful one
+when the first heavy snows of winter had come, and the family had lived
+in it while Koolee finished building the stone igloo. The twins had
+watched him make it. It seemed so easy they were sure they could do it
+too. Kesshoo said, "If you will run to all the igloos and tell the
+people to come at sunset to eat the bear's head, I will help you build
+the snow house for the dogs."
+
+Menie and Monnie couldn't run. Nobody could. The snow was too deep.
+They went in every step above their knees. But they ploughed along and
+gave their message at each igloo.
+
+Everybody was very glad to come, and Koko said, "I'll come right now
+and stay if you want me to."
+
+"Come along," said the twins.
+
+They went back to their own house, kicking the snow to make a path.
+Koko went with them. The snow was just the right kind for a snow house.
+It packed well and made good blocks.
+
+While the twins were away giving the invitations, Kesshoo carried great
+pieces of bear's meat into the house.
+
+Koolee put in the cooking pan all the meat it would hold, and kept the
+blaze bright in the lamp underneath to cook it.
+
+Then Kesshoo took his long ivory knife and went out to help the twins
+with the snow house, as he had promised.
+
+"See, this is the way," he said to them.
+
+He took an unbroken patch of snow where no one had stepped. He made a
+wide sweep of his arm and marked a circle in the snow with his knife.
+
+The circle was just as big as he meant the house to be. Then he cut out
+blocks of snow from the space inside the circle. He placed these big
+blocks of snow around the circle on the line he had marked with his
+knife.
+
+When he got the first row done Menie said, "I can do that! Let me try."
+
+He took the knife and cut out a block. It wasn't nice and even like his
+father's blocks.
+
+"That will never do," his father said. "Your house will tumble down
+unless your blocks are true."
+
+He made the sides of the block straight by cutting off some of the snow.
+
+"Now all the other blocks in this row must be just like this one," he
+said. Koko tried next. His block was almost right the first time. But
+then, as I have told you before, Koko was six.
+
+Monnie tried the next one. I am sorry to say hers wouldn't do at all.
+It was dreadfully crooked. They took turns. Menie cut a new block while
+Koko placed the last one on the snow wall.
+
+Kesshoo had to put on the top blocks to make the roof. Neither Koko nor
+Menie could do it right, though they tried and tried. It is a very hard
+thing to do. When the blocks were all laid up and the dome finished,
+Kesshoo said, "Now, Monnie can help pack it with snow."
+
+Monnie got the snow shovel. The snow shovel was made of three flat
+pieces of wood sewed together with leather thongs. It had an edge of
+horn sewed on with thongs, too.
+
+Monnie threw loose snow on the snow house and spatted it down with the
+back of the shovel.
+
+While she was doing this, Menie and Koko built a tunnel entrance for
+the dogs just like the big one on the stone house.
+
+They worked so hard they were warm as toast, though it was as cold as
+our coldest winter weather; and when it was all finished Menie ran
+clear over it just to show how strong and well built it was.
+
+
+III.
+
+When the snow house was all ready, Menie called the three big dogs.
+Tooky was the leader, and the three dogs together were Kesshoo's sledge
+team. Tooky was a hunting dog too.
+
+When Menie called the dogs, the dogs thought they were going to be
+harnessed, so they hid behind the igloo and pretended they didn't hear.
+Koko and Menie followed them, but the moment they got near, the dogs
+bounded away. They went round to the front of the igloo and ran into
+the tunnel.
+
+Koolee was just turning the meat in the pan with a pointed stick. There
+was a piece of bear's meat lying on the bench.
+
+The dogs smelled the meat. They stuck their heads into the room, and
+when Koolee's back was turned, Tooky stole the meat!
+
+Just then Koolee turned around. She saw Tooky. She shrieked, "Oh, my
+meat, my meat!" and whacked Tooky across the nose with the snow stick!
+
+But Tooky was bound to have the meat. She ran out of the tunnel with it
+in her mouth, just as Menie and Koko got round to the front of the
+igloo once more.
+
+"I-yi! I-yi!" they screamed, "Tooky's got the meat!" Kesshoo caught up
+his dog-whip and came running from the storehouse.
+
+The other two dogs wanted the meat too. They flew at Tooky and snarled
+and fought with her to get it.
+
+Then Koolee's head appeared in the tunnel hole! Tooky was crouching in
+the snow in front of the tunnel, trying to fight off the other two dogs
+and guard the meat at the same time.
+
+She wasn't doing a thing with her tail, but she was very busy with all
+the rest of her. Her tail was pointed right toward the tunnel.
+
+The moment she saw it Koolee seized the tail with both hands and jerked
+it like everything! Tooky was so surprised she yelped. And when she
+opened her mouth to yelp, of course she dropped the meat.
+
+Just at that instant Kesshoo's whip lash came singing about the ears of
+all three dogs.
+
+"Snap, snap," it went. They jumped to get out of the way of the lash.
+
+Then Koolee leaped forward and snatched the meat from under their
+noses, and scuttled back with it into the tunnel before you could say
+Jack Robinson.
+
+It is dangerous to snatch meat away from hungry dogs. If Kesshoo hadn't
+been slashing at them with his whip, and if Menie and Koko hadn't been
+screaming at them with all their might, so the dogs were nearly
+distracted, Koolee might have been badly bitten.
+
+Just then Monnie came up with some dried fish. She threw one of the
+fish over in front of the snow house.
+
+The dogs saw it and leaped for it. Then she threw another into the snow
+hut itself. They went after that. She fed them all with dried fish
+until they were so full they curled up in the snow house and went to
+sleep.
+
+
+
+
+V.  THE FEAST
+
+THE FEAST
+
+I
+
+
+The moment the sun had gone out of sight all the people in the village
+came pouring out of their tunnels on their way to the feast at
+Kesshoo's house.
+
+Kesshoo's house was so small that it seemed as if all the people could
+not possibly get into it.
+
+But the Eskimos are used to crowding into very small spaces, indeed.
+Sometimes a man and his wife and all his children will live in a space
+about the size of a big double bed.
+
+First the Angakok came out of his igloo, looking fatter than ever. The
+Angakok always found plenty to eat somehow. Both his wives were thin.
+Their faces looked like baked apples all brown and wrinkled.
+
+When they reached Kesshoo's house, the Angakok went into the tunnel
+first.
+
+Now I can't tell you whether he had grown fatter during the five days,
+or whether the entrance had grown smaller, but this much I know: the
+Angakok got stuck! He couldn't get himself into the room no matter how
+much he tried! He squirmed and wriggled and twisted, until his face was
+very red and he looked as if he would burst, but there he stayed.
+
+Other people had crawled into the tunnel after him. His two wives were
+just behind. Everybody got stuck, of course, because no one could move
+until the Angakok did. He was just like a cork in the neck of a bottle.
+
+Kesshoo and Koolee and the twins and Nip and Tup were all in the igloo.
+When they saw the Angakok's face come through the hole they thought, of
+course, the rest of him would come too. But it didn't, and the Angakok
+was mad about it.
+
+"Why don't they build igloos the way they used to?" he growled. "Every
+year the tunnels get smaller and smaller! Am I to remain here forever?"
+he went on. "Why doesn't somebody help me?"
+
+Kesshoo and Koolee seized him under his arms. They pulled and pulled.
+The two wives pushed him from behind.
+
+"I-yi! I-yi!" screamed the Angakok. "You will scrape my skin off!"
+
+He kicked out behind with his feet. His wives backed hastily, to get
+out of the way. That made them bump into Koko's mother who was just
+behind them. Her baby was in her hood, and when she backed, the baby's
+head was bumped on the roof of the tunnel.
+
+The baby began to roar. In the tunnel it sounded like a clap of
+thunder. The wives of the Angakok and Koko's mother all began to talk
+at once, and with that and the baby's crying I suppose there never was
+a tunnel that held so much noise. It all came into the igloo, and it
+sounded quite frightful. The twins crept into the farthest corner of
+the sleeping bench and watched their father and mother and the Angakok,
+with their eyes almost popping out of their heads.
+
+Nip and Tup thought they would help a little, so they jumped off the
+bench; and barked at the Angakok. You see, they didn't know he was a
+great medicine man. They thought maybe he ought not to be there at all.
+
+Nip even snapped at the Angakok's ear!
+
+That made the Angakok more angry than ever. He reached into the room,
+seized Nip with one hand and flung him up on to the sleeping bench. Nip
+lit on top of Menie. Nip was very much surprised, and so was Menie.
+
+Now, whether the jerk he gave in throwing Nip did it or not, I cannot
+say, but at that instant Kesshoo and Koolee both gave a great pull in
+front. At the same moment the two wives gave a great push behind, and
+the next moment after that, there was the Angakok, still red, and still
+angry, sitting on the edge of the sleeping bench in the best place near
+the fire!
+
+Then his two wives came crawling through. The Angakok looked at them as
+if he thought they had made him stick in the tunnel, and had done it on
+purpose, too. The wives scuttled up on to the sleeping bench, and got
+into the farthest corner of it as fast as they could.
+
+The women and children always sat back on the bench at a feast.
+
+When Koko's mother came in, the baby was still crying. She climbed up
+on to the bed with him, and Menie and Monnie showed him the pups and
+that made the baby laugh again.
+
+As fast as they came in, the women and children packed themselves away
+on the sleeping bench. The men sat along the edge of it with their feet
+on the floor.
+
+
+II.
+
+The smell of food soon made everybody cheerful. When at last they were
+all crowded into the room, Koolee placed the bear's head and other pans
+of meat on the floor.
+
+Then she crawled back on to the bench with the other women.
+
+The Angakok was the first one to help himself. He reached down and took
+a large chunk of meat. He held it up to his mouth and took hold of the
+end with his teeth. Then he sawed off a huge mouthful with his knife.
+
+It looked as if he would surely cut off the end of his nose too, but he
+didn't.
+
+When the men had all helped themselves, pieces of meat were handed out
+to the women and children.
+
+Soon they were all eating as if their lives depended on it. And now I
+think of it, their lives did depend on it, to be sure! I will not speak
+about their table manners. In fact, they hadn't any to speak of! They
+had nothing to eat with the meat--not even salt--but it was a great
+feast to them for all that, and they ate and ate until every scrap was
+gone.
+
+The Angakok grew better natured every minute. By the time he had eaten
+all he could hold he was really quite happy and benevolent! He clasped
+his hands over his stomach and smiled on everybody.
+
+The women chattered in their corner of the sleeping-bench, and Koolee
+showed Koko's mother the new fur suit trimmed with white rabbit's skin
+that she was making for Menie. And Koko's mother said she really must
+make one for Koko just like it.
+
+The twins and Koko talked about a trap to catch hares which they meant
+to made as soon as the long days began again, and the baby went to
+sleep on a pile of furs in the corner. Menie fed the pups with some of
+his own meat, and gave them each a bone. Nip and Tup buried their bones
+under the baby and then went to sleep too.
+
+
+III.
+
+After a while the Angakok turned his face to the wall, as he always did
+when he meant to tell a story or sing a song. Then he said, "Listen, my
+children!" He called everybody--even the grown up people--his children!
+Everybody listened. They always listened when the Angakok spoke.
+
+The Angakok knew the secrets of the sun, moon, and stars. He had told
+them so many times! The people believed it, and it may be that the
+Angakok really believed it himself, though I have some doubt about that.
+
+"Listen, my children," said the Angakok, "and I will tell you wonderful
+things.
+
+"There is a world beneath the sea! You catch glimpses of that world
+yourselves in calm summer weather, when the water is still, and you
+know that I speak the truth!
+
+"Then you can see the shadows of rocks and islands and glaciers in the
+smooth water. Far below you see blue sky and white clouds. That is the
+calm world in which the Spirits of the Dead live. I have visited that
+underworld, many times, I have talked there with the spirits of your
+ancestors."
+
+The Angakok paused and looked around to see if every one was paying
+attention. Then he went on with his story.
+
+"Do you remember how two springs ago there were so few walruses and
+seals along the coast that you nearly died for lack of food and oil?"
+he said. "My children, it was I who brought the seals and walruses back
+to you! Without my efforts you might all have starved!
+
+"I will tell you of the perils of a fearful journey which I undertook
+for your sakes. Then you will see what you owe to the skill and
+faithfulness of your Angakok!"
+
+All the people looked very solemn, and nodded their heads. The Angakok
+went on.
+
+"You must know that in the depths of the underworld, far beyond the
+beautiful abode of the Spirits of the Dead, lives the Old Woman of the
+Sea!
+
+"There she sits forever and forever beside a monstrous lamp. Underneath
+the lamp is a great saucer to catch the oil which drips from it.
+
+"In that saucer there are whole flocks of sea-birds swimming about! All
+the animals that live in the sea--the whales and walruses, the codfish
+and the seals--swarm in the saucer of the Old Woman of the Sea. That is
+where they all come from. Sometimes the Old Woman of the Sea keeps all
+the creatures in the saucer. Then there are no seal or fish or walrus
+along our coasts, and there is hunger among the innuit (human beings).
+
+"At the time of my journey she had kept all the creatures for so long a
+time in her saucer that you and many others were nearly dead for lack
+of food."
+
+"It was then that I prepared myself for the perils of this journey to
+the underworld. I called my Tornak, or guiding spirit, to lead my
+steps. Without his Tornak an Angakok can do nothing. The Tornak came at
+once in answer to my call. He took me by the hand, and we plunged down
+into the water. First we passed through the beautiful World of Spirits,
+where it is always summer. This part of the way was quite pleasant, but
+on the farther side of that world we came to a fearful abyss. It could
+be crossed only on a large slippery wheel, as slippery as ice."
+
+"I mounted this wheel and was whirled across the chasm. No sooner had I
+reached the other side than new terrors came upon me. I had to pass by
+great cauldrons of boiling oil, in which seals were swimming about."
+
+"A misstep would have sent me plunging into the boiling oil, and you
+would have lost your Angakok forever!"
+
+The thought of this was so dreadful that the Angakok paused and wiped
+his eyes. Then he went on again with his story.
+
+"However, with great courage I kept upon my way until at last I saw the
+Old Woman's house! A deep gulf lay between us and her dwelling, and
+outside it stood a great dog with bloody jaws. This dog guards the
+entrance, and he sleeps only for a single moment, once in a very great
+while."
+
+"For six days I and my Tornak waited there for the dog to sleep. At
+last on the seventh day he closed his eyes! Instantly the Tornak seized
+my hand and drew me across the bridge which spanned the chasm. This
+bridge was as narrow as a single thread."
+
+"When we were safely across the bridge we passed the sleeping dog and
+boldly entered the Old Woman's house. The Old Woman is terrible to look
+upon! Her hand is the size of a large walrus, and her teeth like the
+rocks along the coast!" The Angakok dropped his voice to a whisper.
+
+"However, when she looked upon me she trembled!" he said. "She saw at
+once that I possessed great power, and was a great Angakok. I spoke to
+her flattering words. Then I told her of the hunger of my children!"
+
+"I begged that she would send the seal and walrus and sea-birds to our
+coast at once. But she had no mind to yield to my requests. Then I
+stormed and threatened." The Angakok's voice grew louder. "The walls
+shook with the thunder of my voice! At last I seized her by the hair! I
+tipped over the saucer with my foot! My great power prevailed against
+the mighty sorceress!"
+
+"The seal and walrus swam away. The birds flew into the air and were
+gone. I had conquered the Old Woman of the Sea! My children were
+saved!" The Angakok was silent for a moment. Then he spoke again in a
+natural voice.
+
+"When I opened my eyes in my own igloo again," he said, "the famine was
+already over. Flocks of sea-birds were flying overhead. The sea swarmed
+with fish, and with walrus and seal. Every one along the whole coast
+was happy. Ask yourselves--is it not so?"
+
+The Angakok seemed very much pleased with himself, and he looked about,
+as if he expected every one else to be pleased with him too. All the
+people were filled with wonder at his great power. They began to talk
+among themselves.
+
+"Yes, I remember the famine well," said Koko's father. "I was away up
+the coast that season. Several died in our village for lack of food."
+
+Other men remembered things about other times when food had been scarce.
+
+"It is lucky," they said to each other, "that here we have a great
+Angakok who understands all the secrets of the World and who can save
+us from such dreadful things."
+
+
+IV.
+
+At last Kesshoo said, "Will you tell us, great Angakok, how you make
+these wonderful journeys?"
+
+"Do you really wish to know?" asked the Angakok. "If you do, I will
+summon my guiding spirits to tell you, but they will speak only in the
+darkness."
+
+Kesshoo took the lamp at once and put it out in the tunnel. Then he
+placed a thick musk-ox hide over the entrance, so that not a single ray
+of light came into the room. The darkness could almost be felt.
+Everybody sat very still and listened.
+
+Soon a heavy body was heard to strike the floor with a dull thud, and a
+strange voice said, "Who calls me?"
+
+Another voice said, "You are called, mighty spirits, to tell these
+children of the labors of their Angakok."
+
+Then began all sorts of strange noises, as of different persons
+speaking. All the voices sounded much like the Angakok's, and they all
+said what a great medicine man the Angakok was, and how every one in
+the village must be sure to do what he told them to!
+
+At last the Angakok himself spoke, in his own voice. "I will tell you
+how I make these strange journeys," he said.
+
+"My body is now lying on the floor at your feet. Now I begin to rise.
+You cannot see me. You cannot touch me. Now I am floating about your
+heads, now I am touching the roof! I can go wherever I please! Nothing
+can stop me! I know the secret places of the sun, moon, and stars. I
+can fly through the roof and go at once to the moon, if I wish to."
+
+Then the voice was still. Nobody moved or spoke.
+
+Monnie had gone to sleep in the corner of the bed, but Koko and Menie
+were still awake. They had listened to every word about the Old Woman
+of the Sea, and how the Angakok traveled to the moon.
+
+You know I told you before that Koko was six. He wanted to know all
+about things. So he spoke right out in the dark, when every one else
+was still.
+
+He said, "Mother, if the Angakok can go anywhere he wants to, why
+couldn't he get out of the tunnel?"
+
+Koko's mother tried to hush him up. "Sh, sh," she said, and put her
+hand over his mouth. At least she thought she did, but she made a
+mistake in the dark and put her hand over Menie's mouth instead!
+
+Menie tried to say, "I never said a word," but he could only make queer
+sounds, because Koko's mother's hand was tight on his mouth.
+
+Of course Koko didn't know his mother was trying to keep him still, so
+he said again, "Why is it, mother?"
+
+Koko's mother heard Koko's voice speaking just as plainly as ever
+though she was sure she had her hand over his mouth! She was frightened.
+
+"Magic! magic!" she screamed. "Bring the light! Koko is bewitched! I
+have my hand over his mouth, yet you hear that he talks as plainly as
+ever!"
+
+Koko tried to say, "Your hand isn't over my mouth," and Menie tried to
+say, "It's over mine!" but he could only say, "M-m-m," because she held
+on so tight!
+
+Koko's mother was making so much noise herself that she wouldn't have
+heard what either one said anyway. The baby woke up and whimpered. Nip
+and Tup woke up and barked like everything.
+
+Kesshoo got the light from the tunnel as quickly as he could, and set
+it on the bench. Then every one saw what was the matter! They all
+laughed--all but Menie and the Angakok. The Angakok said to Koko's
+father, "You'd better look after that boy. He is disrespectful to me.
+That is a bad beginning!"
+
+Koko's father was ashamed of him. He said, "Koko is so small!"
+
+But the Angakok said, "Koko is six. He is old enough to know better."
+
+
+V.
+
+Everybody was so glad to see the light again that they all began to
+talk at once.
+
+Some one said to Kesshoo, "Tell us about the long journey to the south
+you took once long ago."
+
+Then everybody else listened, while Kesshoo told about how once he had
+taken his dog sledge with a load of musk-ox and seal skins on it far
+down the coast and how at last he had come to a little settlement where
+the houses were all made of wood, if they would believe it!
+
+He told them that in the bay before the village there was a boat as big
+as the Big Rock itself. It had queer white wings, and the wind blew on
+these wings and made the boat go!
+
+Kesshoo had been out in a kyak to see it. He had even paddled all round
+it. The men on the great boat had fair hair, and one of them, the chief
+man of all, had bought some of Kesshoo's skins and one of his dogs. The
+man was a great chief. His name was Nansen.
+
+This great chief had told Kesshoo that he was going to take a sledge
+and go straight into the inland country where the Giants live! He said
+he was going to cross the great ice! No man had ever done that since
+the world began.
+
+Kesshoo thought probably the great chief had been eaten by the Giants,
+but he did not know surely, because he had never been back there since
+to find out. And to be sure, if he had been eaten by Giants, no one
+ever would know about it anyway.
+
+Then Kesshoo showed them all a great knife that the white chief had
+given him, in exchange for a sealskin, and two steel needles that he
+had sent to Koolee. Koolee kept the needles in a little ivory case all
+by themselves.
+
+She always carried the case in her kamik, so it would not be lost. She
+could do wonderful sewing with the needles. Koolee was very proud of
+her sewing. No one else in the whole village could sew so well, because
+they had not such good needles to do it with. Koolee used them only for
+her very finest work.
+
+At last the Angakok said, "It is time to go home." He called to his
+wives. They climbed down off the bench.
+
+That started the others. One after another they put on their upper
+garments, which they had taken off in the warm igloo, said good bye,
+and popped down into the tunnel. Last of all came the Angakok's turn.
+
+Then Kesshoo and Koolee and the Angakok's wives all began to look very
+anxious. The Angakok looked a little worried himself. If he had stuck
+coming in, what would happen now after he had eaten so much!
+
+He got down on his hands and knees, and looked at the hole. He had
+taken off his thick fur coat when he came in. Now he took off his
+undercoat, and his thick fur trousers! He gave them to his wives.
+
+Then he stretched himself out just as long as he possibly could and
+slowly hitched himself down into the tunnel, groaning all the way.
+
+Kesshoo and Koolee and the wives waited until his feet disappeared, and
+they heard him scraping along through the tunnel. Then they breathed a
+great sigh of relief, and the two wives popped down after him.
+
+The last Kesshoo and Koolee heard of the Angakok, was a kind of muffled
+roar when a piece of ice fell from the top of the tunnel on to his bare
+back.
+
+Menie and Monnie and the pups were already sound asleep in their corner
+of the bench when their father and mother fixed the lamp for the night
+and crawled in among the fur robes beside them.
+
+
+
+
+VI.  THE REINDEER HUNT
+
+THE REINDEER HUNT
+
+I.
+
+
+The day after the feast it was still very cold, but there were signs of
+spring in the air. When Menie went out to feed the dogs, he saw a flock
+of ravens flying north, and Koko saw some sea-birds on the same day.
+
+Two days after that, when the twins and Koko were all three playing
+together on the Big Rock, they saw a huge iceberg float lazily by.
+
+It had broken away from a glacier, farther north, and was drifting
+slowly toward the Southern Sea. It gleamed in the sun like a great ice
+palace.
+
+One morning the air was thick with fog. When Kesshoo saw the fog he
+said, "This would be a great day to hunt reindeer."
+
+"Oh, let me go with you!" cried Menie.
+
+Monnie knew better than to ask. She knew very well she would never be
+allowed to go.
+
+Kesshoo thought a little before he answered. Then he said, "If Koko's
+father will go, too, you and Koko may both go with us. You are pretty
+small to go hunting, but boys cannot begin too early to learn."
+
+Menie was wild with joy. He rushed to Koko's house and told him and his
+father what Kesshoo had said.
+
+When he had finished, Koko's father said at once, "Tell Kesshoo we will
+go."
+
+It was not long before they were ready to start. Kesshoo had his great
+bow, and arrows, and a spear. He also had his bird dart. Koko's father
+had his bow and spear and dart, too. Menie had his little bow and
+arrows.
+
+Kesshoo put a harness on Tooky and tied the end of Tooky's harness
+trace around Menie's waist. Koko's father had brought his best dog,
+too, and Koko was fastened to the end of that dog's harness in the same
+way.
+
+Then the four hunters started on their journey--Menie and Koko driving
+the dogs in front of them.
+
+Monnie stood on the Big Rock and watched them until they were out of
+sight in the fog. Nip and Tup were with her. They wanted to go as much
+as Monnie did and she had hard work to keep them from following after
+the hunters.
+
+
+II.
+
+Kesshoo knew very well where to look for the reindeer. He led the way
+up a steep gorge where the first green moss appeared in the spring.
+They all four walked quietly along for several miles.
+
+When they got nearly to the head of the gorge, Kesshoo stopped. He said
+to the boys, "You must not make any noise yourselves, and you must not
+let the dogs bark. If you do there will be no reindeer today."
+
+The boys kept very still, indeed. The dogs were good hunting dogs. They
+knew better than to bark.
+
+They walked on a little farther. Then Kesshoo came very near the others
+and spoke in a low voice. He said, "We are coming to a spot where there
+are likely to be reindeer. The wind is from the south. If we keep on in
+this direction, the reindeer will smell us. We must go round in such a
+way that the wind will carry the scent from them to us, not from us to
+them."
+
+They turned to the right and went round to the north. They had gone
+only a short distance in this direction, when they found fresh reindeer
+tracks in the snow. The dogs began to sniff and strain at their
+harnesses.
+
+"They smell the game," whispered Kesshoo. "Hold on tight! Don't let
+them run."
+
+Menie and Koko held the dogs back as hard as they could. Kesshoo and
+Koko's father crept forward with their bows in their hands. The fog was
+so thick they could not see very far before them.
+
+They had gone only a short distance, when out of the fog loomed two
+great gray shadows. Instantly the two men dropped on their knees and
+took careful aim.
+
+The reindeer did not see them. They did not know that anything was near
+until they felt the sting of the hunters' arrows. One reindeer dropped
+to the earth. The other was not killed. He flung his head in the air
+and galloped away, and they could hear the thud, thud, of his hoofs
+long after he had disappeared in the fog.
+
+The moment the dogs heard the singing sound of the arrows, they bounded
+forward. Koko and Menie were not strong enough to hold them back, and
+they could not run fast enough to keep up with them. So they just
+bumped along behind the dogs! Some of the time they slid through the
+snow.
+
+The snow was rough and hard, and it hurt a good deal to be dragged
+through it as if they were sledges, but Eskimo boys are used to bumps,
+and they knew if they cried they might scare the game, so they never
+even whimpered.
+
+It was lucky for them that they had not far to go. When they came
+bumping along, Kesshoo and Koko's father laughed at them.
+
+"Don't be in such a hurry," they called. "There's plenty of time!"
+
+They unbound the traces from Menie and Koko and hitched the dogs to the
+body of the reindeer. Then they all started back to the village with
+Koko's father driving the dogs.
+
+Soon the fog lifted and the sky grew clear.
+
+Monnie was playing with her doll in the igloo, when she heard Tooky
+bark. She knew it was Tooky at once. She and Koolee both plunged into
+the tunnel like mice down a mouse hole. Nip and Tup were ahead of them.
+
+Outside they found Koko's mother and the baby. Koolee called to her,
+and she called to the wives of the Angakok, who were scraping a bear's
+skin in the snow.
+
+The Angakok's wives, and Koko's mother and her baby, and Koolee, and
+Monnie, and Nip and Tup all ran to meet the hunters, and you never saw
+two prouder boys than Koko and Menie when they showed the reindeer to
+their mothers.
+
+The mothers were proud of their young hunters, too. Koolee said, "Soon
+we shall have another man in our family."
+
+When they were quite near the village again, they met the Angakok. He
+had been trying to catch up with them and he was out of breath from
+running. He looked at them sternly.
+
+"Why didn't you call me?" he panted.
+
+His wives looked frightened and didn't say a word. Nobody else said
+anything. The Angakok glared at them all for a moment. Then he poked
+the reindeer with his fingers to see if it was fat and said to the men,
+"Which portion am I to have?"
+
+"Would you like the liver?" asked Kesshoo. He remembered about the
+bear's liver, you see.
+
+But the Angakok looked offended. "Who will have the stomach?" he said.
+"You know very well that the stomach is the best part of a reindeer."
+
+"Take the stomach, by all means, then," said Kesshoo, politely.
+
+Koolee and Monnie looked very much disappointed. They wanted the
+stomach dreadfully.
+
+But the Angakok answered, "Since you urge me, I will take the stomach.
+I had a dream last night, and in the dream I was told by my Tornak that
+today I should feed upon a reindeer's stomach, given me by one of my
+grateful children. When you think how I suffered to bring food to you,
+I am sure you will wish to provide me with whatever it seems best that
+I should have."
+
+He stood by while Kesshoo and Koko's father skinned the reindeer and
+cut it in pieces. Then he took the stomach and disappeared into his
+igloo--with his face all wreathed in smiles.
+
+
+
+
+VII.  WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MENIE AND KOKO WENT HUNTING BY THEMSELVES
+
+WHAT HAPPENED WHEN MENIE AND KOKO WENT HUNTING BY THEMSELVES
+
+I.
+
+
+It was very lucky for the twins that their father was such a brave and
+skillful kyak man. You will see the reason why, when I tell you the
+story of the day Menie and Koko went hunting alone on the ice.
+
+One April morning Kesshoo was working on his kyak to make sure that it
+was in perfect order for the spring walrus hunting. Koko and Menie
+watched him for a long time. Monnie was with Koolee in the hut.
+
+By and by Koko said to Menie, "Let's go out on the ice and hunt for
+seal-holes."
+
+"All right," said Menie. "You take your bow and arrows and I'll take my
+spear. Maybe we shall see some little auks."
+
+Koko had a little bow made of deer's horns, and some bone arrows, and
+Menie had a small spear which his father had made for him out of
+driftwood.
+
+"I'll tell you!" said Menie. "Let's go hunting just the way father
+does! You do the shooting and I'll do the spearing! Won't everybody be
+surprised to see us bring home a great load of game? I shall give
+everything I get to my mother."
+
+"I'm going to hunt birds and seal-holes too," Koko answered.
+
+Kesshoo was very busy fixing the fastening of his harpoon, and he did
+not hear what they said.
+
+The two boys went to their homes for their weapons, and then ran out on
+the ice. Nobody knew where they were. Of course, Nip and Tup went along.
+
+
+II.
+
+All the way over the ice they looked for seal-holes. It takes sharp
+eyes to find them, for seal-holes are very small.
+
+You see, the mother seals try to find the safest place they can to hide
+their babies, and this is the way they do it:
+
+As soon as the ice begins to freeze in the autumn, the seals gnaw holes
+in it to reach the air, and they keep these holes open all winter. It
+freezes so fast in that cold country that they have to be busy almost
+every minute all through the winter breaking away the ice there. They
+get their sleep in snatches of a minute or so at a time, and between
+their naps they clear the ice from their breathing holes.
+
+There is usually a deep layer of snow over the ice. Each mother seal
+hollows out a little igloo under the snow, around her breathing hole,
+and leaves a tiny hole in the top of it, so her baby can have plenty of
+fresh air and be hidden from sight at the same time.
+
+The mother seal leaves the baby in the snow house, and she herself
+dives through the hole and swims away. Every few minutes she comes back
+to breathe, and to see that her baby is safe.
+
+It was the tiny hole in the top of the seal's snow house that Menie and
+Koko hoped to find.
+
+The days had grown quite long by this time and there was fog in the
+air. Once in a while there would be a loud crackling noise.
+
+"The ice is beginning to break," Koko said. "Don't you hear it pop? My
+father says he thinks the warm weather will begin early this year."
+
+They had gone some distance out on the ice, when suddenly Menie said,
+"Look! Look there!" He pointed toward the north. There not far from
+shore was a flock of sea-birds, resting on the ice.
+
+"Just let me get a shot at them!" cried Koko. "You stay here and hold
+on to the dogs! Nip and Tup haven't any sense at all about game!
+They'll only scare them."
+
+
+III.
+
+Koko ran swiftly and quietly towards the birds. Menie sat on the ice
+and watched him and held Nip and Tup, one under each arm. When Koko got
+quite near the birds, he took careful aim and let fly an arrow at them.
+
+It didn't hit any of the birds, but it frightened them. They flew up
+into the air and away to the north and alighted farther on. Koko
+followed them.
+
+All at once Menie heard a queer little sound. It went "Plop-plop-plop,"
+and it sounded very near. Nip and Tup sniffed, and began to growl and
+nose around on the ice.
+
+Menie knew what the queer noise meant, for his father had told him all
+about seal hunting. It meant that a seal-hole was near, and that a seal
+had come up to breathe. It was the seal that made the "plopping" noise.
+
+Menie tried to keep the dogs still, but they wouldn't be kept still.
+They ran round with their noses on the snow, giving little anxious
+whines, and short, sharp barks.
+
+The "plop-plop" stopped. The seal had gone down under the ice, but
+Menie meant to find the hole. He went out quite near the open water in
+his search. At last, just beyond a hummock of ice, he saw it! He crept
+carefully up to it.
+
+He lay down on his stomach and peeped into the hole to see what it was
+like. He could not see a thing!
+
+Then he stuck his lance down. His lance touched something soft that
+wiggled! Menie stood up. He was so excited that he trembled. He knew he
+had found a seal-hole with a live seal in the snow house!
+
+With all his strength he struck his lance down through the snow. The
+snow house fell in and Menie fell with it, but he kept hold of his
+lance. The end of the lance was buried in the snow, but it was moving.
+Menie knew by this that he had stuck it into the seal!
+
+He lay still and kept fast hold of his lance, and pressed down on it
+with all his might.
+
+Nip and Tup were crazy with excitement. They jumped round and barked
+and tried to dig a hole in the snow with their forefeet.
+
+At last the spear stopped wiggling. Then Menie carefully dug the snow
+away. There lay a little white seal! It was too young to swim away with
+its mother. That was why such a small boy as Menie had been able to
+kill it.
+
+He dragged it out on the ice. He was so excited and so busy he did not
+notice how near he was to the open water.
+
+
+IV.
+
+All of a sudden there was a loud cracking noise, and Menie felt the ice
+moving under him! He looked back. There was a tiny strip of blue water
+between him and the shore!
+
+The strip grew wider while he looked at it! Menie knew that he was
+adrift on an ice raft, and he was terribly frightened. Nip and Tup
+cuddled close to him and whined with fear.
+
+Menie understood perfectly well that he might be carried far out to sea
+and never come back any more. He put his hands to his mouth and yelled
+with all his might!
+
+Koko was still following the birds, and did not hear Menie's cries.
+Menie could see him running up the beach after the birds, and he could
+see his father working over his kyak near his home.
+
+He even saw Monnie come out of the tunnel and go to watch her father at
+his work. They seemed very far away, and every moment the distance
+between them and the raft grew greater.
+
+Menie screamed again and again. At the third scream he saw his father
+straighten up, shade his eyes with his hand, and look out to sea.
+
+"Oh," Menie thought. "What if he shouldn't see me!" He shouted louder
+than ever! He waved his arms! He even pinched the tails of Nip and Tup
+and made them bark. Then he saw his father wave his hand and dive into
+the tunnel.
+
+In another instant he was out again and pulling on his skin coat. Then
+he took the kyak on his shoulders and ran with it to the beach. Monnie
+and Koolee came running after him.
+
+They were doing the screaming now! Every one in the village heard the
+screams and came running down to the beach, too.
+
+When Menie saw his father coming with the kyak, he wasn't afraid any
+more, for he was sure his father would save him. He wasn't even afraid
+about the cakes of ice that were floating in the water, though there is
+nothing more dangerous than to go out in a kyak among ice floes. One
+bump from a floating cake of ice is enough to upset any boat, and I
+don't like to think of what might happen if a kyak should get between
+two big cakes of ice.
+
+Kesshoo ran with his kyak as far as he could on the ice. Then he got in
+and fitted the bottom of his skin jacket over the kyak hole and
+carefully slid himself into the open water.
+
+Once in the water, how his paddle flew!
+
+It seemed to Menie as if his father would never reach him! He sat very
+still on the ice pan with the dead seal beside him, and Nip and Tup
+huddled up against him.
+
+At last Kesshoo came near enough so he could make Menie hear everything
+he said. "Menie," he cried, "if you do exactly what I tell you to, I
+can save you.
+
+"I will throw you my harpoon. You must drive it way down into the ice.
+Then by the harpoon line I will tow your ice pan back toward shore.
+When we get to the big ice I will find a place for you to land.
+
+"You must be ready, and when I give the word jump from your ice raft on
+to the solid ice."
+
+Then Kesshoo threw his harpoon, and Menie drove it into the ice with
+all his might. Slowly Kesshoo drew the line taut, turned his kyak
+round, and started for the shore. The journey out had been dangerous,
+but the journey back was much more so, for Kesshoo could not dodge the
+floating ice nearly so well. He had to pick his way carefully through
+the clearest water he could find. Very cautiously they moved toward
+shore.
+
+
+V.
+
+They were getting quite near the place where the ice had broken with
+Menie, when suddenly, right near them, they saw the head and great,
+round eyes of a seal! It was the seal mother.
+
+She had come back to find her breathing hole and her baby.
+
+The moment Kesshoo saw her he seized his dart, which lay in its place
+on top of his kyak, and threw it with all his might at the seal.
+
+The seal dived down into the sea, but a bladder full of air was
+attached to the line on the dart, and this bladder floated on the
+water, so Kesshoo could tell by watching it just where the seal was.
+
+Kesshoo knew he had struck the seal, and although he was already towing
+the ice raft, he was determined to bring home the big seal, too!
+
+He called to Menie. "Sit still and wait until I come for you."
+
+Then he quickly cut the harpoon line by which he was towing the ice
+raft, and set it adrift again. As soon as he was free he paddled away
+after the bladder, which was now bobbing along over the water at some
+little distance from the boat.
+
+Menie sat perfectly still and watched his father. Kesshoo reached the
+bladder and began to pull on the line, but just at that moment the big
+seal turned round and swam right under the kyak!
+
+In a second the kyak turned bottom side up in the water! Menie
+screamed. The people watching on the shore gave a great howl, and
+Koko's father started up the beach after his own kyak.
+
+He thought perhaps Kesshoo could not manage both the ice raft and the
+seal, and he meant to go to help him.
+
+But in one second Kesshoo was right side up again. No water could get
+into the kyak because Kesshoo's skin coat was drawn tight over the hole
+in the deck, and Kesshoo was in the coat!
+
+Kesshoo often turned somersaults in the water in that way. Sometimes he
+even did it for fun! He said afterward that he could have turned the
+boat right side up again with just his nose, without using either his
+paddle or his arms, if only his nose had been a little bigger, and
+though he meant this for a joke, the twins believed that he really
+could do it.
+
+The moment he was right side up again, Kesshoo gave chase once more to
+the bladder. The seal was very weak now, and Kesshoo knew that it would
+soon come to the surface and float and that then he could tow it in.
+
+He had not long to wait. The bladder bobbed about for a while and then
+was still. Kesshoo drew up the line, and paddled back to the ice raft,
+towing the big seal after him.
+
+"Catch this," he said to Menie. He threw him the end of the line. "Wind
+the line six times round the harpoon," he said, "and hold tight to the
+end of it."
+
+Menie did as he was told. Then Kesshoo tied together the two ends of
+the harpoon line, which he had cut, and began to tow the ice raft back
+to share again.
+
+Menie kept tight hold of the other line and towed the seal!
+
+Kesshoo paddled slowly and carefully along, until at last there was
+only a little strip of water between the kyak and the solid ice.
+
+But how in the world could Menie get across that strip of water to
+safety?
+
+The kyak was between him and the solid ice, and Menie could not
+possibly get into the kyak. Neither could he swim. But Kesshoo knew a
+way.
+
+He came up closer to the solid ice. Then he gave a great sweep with his
+paddle and lifted his kyak right up on to it. He sprang out, and,
+seizing the harpoon line, pulled Menie's raft close up to the edge of
+the firm ice.
+
+Menie was still holding tight to the line that held the big seal.
+Kesshoo threw him another line. Menie caught the end of it.
+
+"Now tie the big seal's line fast to that," Kesshoo said. Menie was a
+very small boy, but he knew how to tie knots. He did just what his
+father told him to.
+
+"Now," said his father, "pull up the harpoon." Menie did so. "Tie the
+harpoon line to the little seal." Menie did that. "Now throw the
+harpoon to me," commanded Kesshoo.
+
+Menie threw it with all his might. His father caught it, and stood on
+the firm ice, holding in his hands the line that the big seal was tied
+to, and the harpoon, with its line fastened to the little seal.
+
+"Now hold on to the little seal, and I will pull you right up against
+the solid ice, and when I say 'Jump,' you jump," said Kesshoo.
+
+Slowly and very, carefully he pulled, until the raft grated against the
+solid ice.
+
+"Jump!" shouted Kesshoo.
+
+Menie jumped. The ice raft gave a lurch that nearly sent him into the
+water, but Kesshoo caught him and pulled him to safety.
+
+A great shout of joy went up from the shore, and Menie was glad enough
+to shout too when he felt solid ice under his feet once more!
+
+While he helped his father pull in the little seal, all the people came
+running out on to the ice to meet them, but Kesshoo sent back every one
+except Koko's father. He was afraid the ice might break again with so
+many people on it. Koko's father helped pull the big seal out of the
+water and over the ice to the beach.
+
+Menie dragged his own little seal after him by the harpoon line, and
+when he came near the beach, the people all cried out, "See the great
+hunter with his game!" And Koolee was so glad to see Menie and so proud
+of her boy that she nearly burst with joy!
+
+"I knew the charm would work," she cried. "Not only does he spy
+bears--he kills seals! And he only five years old!"
+
+She put her arms around him and pressed her flat nose to his. That's
+the Eskimo way of kissing.
+
+Menie tried to look as if he killed seals and got carried away on an
+ice pan every day in the week, but inside he felt very proud, too.
+
+When Kesshoo and Koko's father came up with the big seal, Koolee and
+the other women dragged it to the village, where it was skinned and cut
+up. Every one had a piece of raw blubber to eat at once, and the very
+first piece went to Menie.
+
+While they were eating it, Koko came back. He had gone so far up the
+shore hunting little auks that he hadn't seen a thing that had
+happened. And he hadn't killed any little auks either.
+
+Koko felt that things were very unequally divided in this world. He
+wanted to kill a seal and get lost on a raft and be a hero too.
+
+But Koolee gave him a large piece of blubber, and that made him feel
+much more cheerful again. He just said to Monnie, "If I had been with
+Menie, this never would have happened! I should not have let him get so
+near the edge of the ice! But then, you know, I am six, and he is only
+five, so, of course, he didn't know any better."
+
+Everybody in the village had seal meat that night, and the Angakok had
+the head, which they all thought was the best part. He said he didn't
+feel very well, and his Tornak had told him nothing would cure him so
+quickly as a seal's head. So Koolee gave it to him.
+
+The skin of the little white seal Koolee saved and dressed very
+carefully. She chewed it, all over, on the wrong side, and sucked out
+all the blubber, and made it soft and fine as velvet; and when that was
+done, she made out of it two beautiful pairs of white mittens for the
+twins.
+
+
+
+
+VIII.  THE WOMAN-BOATS
+
+THE WOMAN-BOATS
+
+I.
+
+
+During the long, dark hours of the winter Kesshoo found many pleasant
+things to do at home. He was always busy. He carved a doll for Monnie
+out of the ivory tusk of a walrus.
+
+Monnie named the doll Annadore, and she loved it dearly. Koolee dressed
+Annadore in fur, with tiny kamiks of sealskin, and Monnie carried her
+doll in her hood, just the way Koko's mother carried her baby.
+
+For Menie, his father made dog harnesses out of walrus hide. He made
+them just the right size for Nip and Tup.
+
+Menie harnessed the little dogs to his sled. Then he and Monnie would
+play sledge journeys. Annadore would sit on the sled all wrapped in
+furs, while Menie drove the dogs, and Monnie followed after.
+
+Nip and Tup did not like this play very well, and they didn't always go
+where they were told to. Once they dashed right over the igloo and
+spilled Annadore off.
+
+Annadore rolled down one side of the igloo, while Nip and Tup galloped
+down the other. Annadore was buried in the snow and had to be dug out,
+so it was quite a serious accident, you see, but Nip and Tup did not
+seem to feel at all responsible about it.
+
+Kesshoo made knives and queer spoons out of bone or ivory for Koolee,
+and for himself he made new barbs for his bladder-dart, new bone hooks
+for fishlines, and all sorts of things for hunting.
+
+He made salmon spears, and bird darts, and fishlines, and he ornamented
+his weapons with little pictures or patterns. He carved two frogs on
+the handle of his snow knife, and scratched the picture of a walrus on
+the blade.
+
+Sometimes Koolee carved things, too, but most of the time she was busy
+making coats or kamiks, or chewing skins to make them soft and fine for
+use in the igloo; or to cover the kyaks, or to make their summer tent.
+
+Once during the winter the whole family went thirty miles up the coast
+by moonlight to visit Koolee's brother in another village. They went
+with the dog sledge, and it took them two days.
+
+They had meat and blubber with them and plenty of warm skins, and when
+they got tired, Kesshoo made a snow house for them to rest in. The
+twins thought this was the best fun of all.
+
+
+II.
+
+When spring came on, there were other things to do. As the days grew
+longer, the ice in the bay cracked and broke into small pieces and
+floated away.
+
+The water turned deep blue, and danced in the sunlight, and ice floated
+about in it. Often there were walrus on these ice-pans.
+
+The twins sometimes saw their huge black bodies on the white ice, and
+heard their hoarse barks. Then all the men in the village would rush
+for their kyaks and set out after the walrus.
+
+The men were brave and enjoyed the dangerous sport, but the women used
+to watch anxiously until they saw the kyaks coming home towing the
+walrus behind them.
+
+Then they would rush down to the shore, help pull the kyaks up on the
+beach, where they cut the walrus in pieces and divided it among the
+families of the hunters.
+
+When the snow had melted on the Big Rock, hundreds of sea-birds made
+their nests there and filled the air with their cries.
+
+Sometimes Kesshoo went egg hunting on the cliff, and sometimes he set
+traps there for foxes, and he helped Menie and Koko make a little trap
+to catch hares. There was plenty to do in every season of the year.
+
+At last the nights shortened to nothing at all. The long day had begun.
+The stone but, which they had found so comfortable in winter, seemed
+dark and damp now.
+
+Menie and Monnie remembered the summer days when they did not have to
+dive down through a hole to get into their house, so Menie said to
+Monnie one day, "Let's go and ask father if it isn't time to put up the
+tents."
+
+They ran out to find him. He was down on the beach talking with Koko's
+father and the other men of the village.
+
+On the beach were two very long boats. The men were looking them over
+carefully to see if they were water tight.
+
+Koko was with the men. When he saw the twins coming, he tore up the
+slope to meet them, waving his arms and shouting, "They're getting out
+the woman-boats! They're getting out the woman-boats!"
+
+This was glorious news to the twins. They ran down to the beach with
+Koko as fast as their legs could carry them.
+
+They got there just in time to hear Koko's father say to Kesshoo, "I
+think it's safe to start. The ice is pretty well out of the bay, and
+the reindeer will be coming down to the fiords after fresh moss."
+
+All the men listened to hear what Kesshoo would say, and the twins
+listened, too, with all their ears.
+
+"If it's clear, I think we could start after one more sleep," said
+Kesshoo.
+
+
+III.
+
+The twins didn't wait to hear any more. They flew for home, and dashed
+down the tunnel and up into the room.
+
+Koolee was gathering all the knives and spoons and fishing-things and
+sewing things, and dumping them into a large musk-ox hide which was
+spread on the floor.
+
+The musk-ox hide covered the entrance hole. The first thing Koolee knew
+something thumped the musk-ox skin on the under side, and the knives
+and thimbles and needle cases and other things flew in all directions.
+Up through the hole popped the faces of Menie and Monnie!
+
+"Oh, Mother," they shouted. "We're going off on the woman-boats! After
+only one more sleep, if it's pleasant! Father said so!"
+
+Koolee laughed. "I know it!" she said. "I was just packing. You can
+help me. There's a lot to do to get ready."
+
+The twins were delighted to help. They got together all their own
+treasures--the sled, and the fishing rods, the dog harnesses, and
+Annadore, and bound them up with walrus thongs. All but Annadore.
+Annadore rode in Monnie's hood as usual.
+
+Koolee gathered all her things together again and wrapped them in the
+musk-ox hide. She took down the long narwhal tusks that the dog
+harnesses were hung on.
+
+These were the tent poles. She and the twins carried all these things
+to the beach. The men stayed on the beach and packed the things away in
+the boats. The other women brought down their bundles from their
+igloos. There was room for everything in the two big boats.
+
+Only the skins were left on the sleeping bench in the hut. When
+everything else was ready, Koolee and the twins went up on top of the
+igloo.
+
+They pulled the moss and dirt out of the chinks between the stones that
+made the roof, and then Koolee pulled up the stones themselves and let
+them fall over to one side. This left the roof open to the sky.
+
+"What makes you do that?" Menie asked.
+
+"So the sun and rain can clean house for us," said Koolee.
+
+Everybody else in the village got ready in the same way.
+
+At last Kesshoo came up from the beach and said to Koolee, "Let us have
+some meat and a sleep and then we will start. Everything is ready. The
+boats are packed and it looks as if the weather would be clear."
+
+Koolee brought out some walrus meat and blubber for supper, though it
+might just as well be called breakfast, for there was no night coming,
+and the twins ate theirs sitting on the roof of the igloo with their
+feet hanging down inside.
+
+Once Menie's feet kicked his father's head. It was an accident, but
+Kesshoo reached up and took hold of Menie's foot and pulled him down on
+to the sleeping bench and rolled him over among the skins.
+
+"Crawl in there and go to sleep," he said.
+
+Monnie let herself down through the roof by her hands and crept in
+beside Menie. Then Kesshoo and Koolee wrapped themselves in the warm
+skins and lay down, too.
+
+It took Menie and Monnie some time to go to sleep, for they could look
+straight up through the roof at the sky, and the sky was bright and
+blue with little white clouds sailing over it. Besides, they were
+thinking about the wonderful things that would happen when they should
+wake up.
+
+
+
+
+IX.  THE VOYAGE
+
+THE VOYAGE
+
+I.
+
+
+When the twins awoke, the sun was shining as brightly as ever, and Nip
+and Tup were barking at them through the hole in the roof.
+
+Kesshoo and Koolee were gone!
+
+Menie and Monnie were frightened. They were afraid they were left
+behind. They sat up in bed and howled!
+
+In a moment Koolee's face looked down at them through the roof.
+
+"What's the matter?" she said.
+
+"We thought we were left," wailed Monnie!
+
+"As if I could leave you behind!" cried Koolee.
+
+She laughed at them. "Hand up the skins to me," she said. She reached
+her arm down the hole and pulled out all the skins from the bed as fast
+as the twins gave them to her.
+
+Then she put her head down into the opening and looked all around. "We
+haven't left a thing," she said; "come along."
+
+The twins couldn't climb out through the roof, though they wanted to,
+so they went out by the tunnel, and helped their mother carry the skins
+to the beach.
+
+All the people in the village and all the dogs were there before them.
+The great woman-boats were packed, the kyaks of the men waited beside
+them in a row on the beach, with their noses in the water.
+
+The dogs barked and raced up and down the beach, the babies crowed, and
+the children shouted for joy. Even the grown people were gay. They
+talked in loud tones and laughed and made jokes.
+
+
+II.
+
+At last Kesshoo shouted, "All ready! In you go!" He told each person
+where to sit.
+
+He put the Angakok in one boat to steer. He put Koko's father in the
+other.
+
+In Koko's father's boat he placed Koko and his mother and the baby,
+Koolee and the twins, the pups, all three dogs, and four of the women
+who lived in the other igloos. So you see it was quite a large boat.
+
+In the Angakok's boat he placed his two wives, and all the rest of the
+women and children and dogs. The women took up the paddles. One end of
+the boat was partly in the water when they got in. The men gently
+pushed it farther out until it floated.
+
+Then the men got into their kyaks at the water's edge, fastened their
+skin coats over the rims, and paddled out into deep water.
+
+At last, when all the boats, big and little, were afloat, Kesshoo
+called out, "We are going north. Follow me."
+
+The women obeyed the signal of Koko's father and the Angakok. The
+paddles dipped together into the water. The great boats moved! They
+were off!
+
+The children all sat together in the bottom of the boat, but the twins
+and Koko were big enough to see over the sides. While the babies played
+with the dogs, they were busy watching the things that passed on the
+shores. Soon they passed the Big Rock with little auks and puffins
+flying about it. They could see the red feet of the puffins, and a blue
+fox sitting on the top of the rock, waiting for a chance to catch a
+bird.
+
+Then the Big Rock hid the village from sight.
+
+
+III.
+
+Beyond the Big Rock the country was all new to the twins and Koko. They
+looked into narrow bays and inlets as the boat moved along, and saw
+green moss carpeting the sunny slopes in sheltered places.
+
+They could even see bright flowers growing in the warm spots which
+faced the sun. The sky was blue overhead. The water was blue below.
+
+Beyond the green slopes they could see the bare hillsides crowned with
+the white ice cap which never melts, and streams of water dashing down
+the hillsides and pouring themselves into the waters of the bay.
+
+When they had gone a good many miles up the coast, Kesshoo waved his
+hand and pointed to a strange sight on the shore.
+
+There was a great river of ice! They could see where it came out of a
+hollow place between two hills. It looked just like a river, only it
+was frozen solid, and the end of it, where it came into the sea, was
+broken off like a great wall of ice, and there were cakes of ice
+floating about in the water.
+
+Suddenly there was a cracking sound. Menie had heard that sound before.
+It was the same sound that he had heard when he went seal-hole hunting
+and got carried away on the ice raft. Menie didn't like the sound
+anymore. It scared him!
+
+Right after the cracking noise Kesshoo's voice shouted, "Row farther
+out! Follow me!"
+
+He turned his kyak straight out to sea. All the other boats followed.
+
+They had gone only about half a mile when suddenly there was a loud
+crick-crick-CRACK as if a piece of the world had broken off, and then
+there was a splash that could be heard for miles, if there had been any
+one to hear it.
+
+The end of the glacier, or ice river, had broken off and fallen down
+into the water! It had made an iceberg!
+
+The splash was so great that in a moment the waves it made reached the
+boats. The boats rocked up and down on the water and bounced about like
+corks.
+
+The twins and Koko thought this was great fun, but the Angakok didn't
+like it a bit. One wave splashed over him, and some of the water went
+down his neck.
+
+All the grown people knew that if they hadn't rowed quickly away from
+shore when Kesshoo called they might have been upset and drowned.
+
+
+IV.
+
+When the waves made by the iceberg had calmed down again, Kesshoo
+paddled round among the boats.
+
+He said, "I think we'd better land about a mile above here. There's a
+stream there, and perhaps we can get some salmon for our dinner."
+
+He led the way in his kyak, and all the other boats followed. They kept
+out of the path of the iceberg, which had already floated some distance
+from the shore, and it was not long before they came to a little inlet.
+
+Kesshoo paddled into it and up to the very end of it, where a beautiful
+stream of clear water came dashing down over the rocks into the sea.
+
+The hills sloped suddenly down to the shore. The sun shone brightly on
+the green slopes, and the high cliffs behind shut off the cold north
+winds. It was a little piece of summer set right down in the valley.
+
+"Oh, how beautiful!" everybody cried.
+
+The boats were soon drawn up on the beach, the women and children
+tumbled out, and then began preparations for dinner.
+
+The women got out their cooking pots, and Koolee set to work to make a
+fireplace out of three stones.
+
+They had blubber and moss with them, but how could they get a fire?
+They had no matches. They had never even heard of a match.
+
+The Angakok sat down on the beach. He had some little pieces of dry
+driftwood and some dried moss.
+
+He held one end of a piece of driftwood in a sort of handle which he
+pressed against his lips. The other end was in a hollow spot in another
+piece of wood.
+
+The Angakok rolled one driftwood stick round and round in the hollow
+spot of the other. He did this by means of a bow which he pulled from
+one side to the other. This made the stick whirl first one way, then
+back again. Soon a little smoke came curling up round the stick.
+
+Koolee dropped some dried moss on the smoking spot. Suddenly there was
+a little blaze!
+
+She fed the little flame with more moss, and then lighted the moss on
+the stones of the fireplace. She put a soapstone kettle filled with
+water over the fire, and soon the kettle was boiling.
+
+While all this was going on down on the beach, the men took their
+salmon spears and went up the river, and Koko and the twins went with
+them.
+
+The wives of the Angakok went to find moss to feed the fire. They
+brought back great armfuls of it, and put it beside the fireplace.
+
+Koolee was the cook. She stayed on the beach and looked after the
+babies and the dogs, and the fire. Everything was ready for dinner,
+except the food!
+
+Meanwhile the men had found a good place where there were big stones in
+the river. They stood on these stones with their spears in their hands.
+There were hundreds of salmon in the little stream. The salmon were
+going up to the little lake from which the river flowed.
+
+When the fish leaped in the water, the men struck at them with their
+fish spears. There were so many fish, and the men were so skillful that
+they soon had plenty for dinner.
+
+They strung them all on a walrus line and went back to the beach.
+Koolee popped as many as she could into her pot to cook, but the men
+were so hungry they ate theirs raw, and the twins and Koko had as many
+fishes' eyes to eat as they wanted, for once in their lives.
+
+When everybody had eaten as much as he could possibly hold, the babies
+were rolled up in furs in the sand and went to sleep. The Angakok lay
+down on the sand in the sunshine with his hands over his stomach and
+was soon asleep, too.
+
+The men sat in a little group near by, and Menie and Koko lay on their
+stomachs beside Kesshoo.
+
+The women had gone a little farther up the beach. The air was still,
+except for the rippling sound of the water, the distant chatter of the
+women, the snores of the Angakok, and the buzzing of mosquitoes!
+
+For quite a long time everybody rested. Menie and Koko didn't go to
+sleep. They were having too much fun. They played with shells and
+pebbles and watched the mosquitoes buzzing over the Angakok's face.
+There were a great many mosquitoes, and they seemed to like the
+Angakok. At last one settled on his nose, and bit and bit. Menie and
+Koko wanted to slap it, but, of course, they didn't dare. They just had
+to let it bite!
+
+All of a sudden the Angakok woke up and slapped it himself. He slapped
+it harder than he intended to. He looked very much surprised and quite
+offended about it. He sat up and looked round for his wives, as if he
+thought perhaps they had something to do with it. But they were at the
+other end of the beach. The Angakok yawned and rubbed his nose, which
+was a good deal swollen.
+
+Just then Kesshoo spoke, "I think we shall look a long time before we
+find a better spot than this to camp," he said. "Here are plenty of
+salmon. We can catch all we need to dry for winter use, right here.
+There must be deer farther up the fiord. What do you say to setting up
+the tents right here?"
+
+When Kesshoo said anything, the others were pretty sure to agree,
+because Kesshoo was such a brave and skillful man that they trusted his
+judgment.
+
+All the men said, "Yes, let us stay."
+
+Then the Angakok said, "Yes, my children, let us stay! While you
+thought I was asleep here on the sand I was really in a trance. I
+thought it best to ask my Tornak about this spot, and whether we should
+be threatened here by any hidden danger. My Tornak says to stay!"
+
+This settled the matter.
+
+"Tell the women," said Kesshoo. Koko's father went over to the place
+where the women and children were.
+
+"Get out the tent poles," he called to them. "Here's where we stay."
+
+
+V.
+
+The women jumped up and ran to the woman-boats. They got out the long
+narwhal tusks, and the skins, and set them down on the beach.
+
+"Come with me," Koolee called to the twins. She gave them each a long
+tent pole to carry. She herself carried the longest pole of all, and a
+pile of skins.
+
+Koolee led the way up the green slope to a level spot overlooking the
+stream and the bay. It was beside some high rocks, and there were
+smaller stones all about.
+
+There was a flat stone that she used for the sleeping bench. When the
+poles were set up and securely fastened, she got the tent skins and
+covered the poles.
+
+She put on one layer of skin with the hair inside and over that another
+covering of skin with the fur side out. She sewed the skins together
+over the entrance with leather thongs and left a flap for a door.
+
+Then she placed stones around the edge of the tent covering to keep the
+wind from blowing it away. She piled the bed skins on the rock, and
+their summer house was ready.
+
+The twins brought the musk-ox hides, with all their treasures in them,
+and the cooking pots and knives and household things from the beach,
+while Koolee made the fireplace in the tent.
+
+She made the fireplace by driving four sticks into the ground and
+lashing them together to make a framework.
+
+She hung the cooking kettle by straps from the four corners. Under the
+kettle on a flat stone she placed the lamp. Then the stove was ready.
+
+"We shall cook out of doors most of the time," she said to the twins,
+"but in rainy weather we shall need the lamp."
+
+It was only a little while before there was a whole new village ready
+to live in, with plenty of fish and good fresh water right at hand.
+
+
+VI.
+
+Menie and Monnie were happy in their new home. They climbed about on
+the rock and found a beautiful cave to play in. They gathered flowers
+and shells and colored stones and brought them to their mother.
+
+Then later they went for more fish with the men, and Kesshoo let them
+stand on the stones and try to spear the fish just the way the men did.
+
+Menie caught one, and Koko caught one, but Monnie had no luck at all.
+"Anyway, I caught a codfish once," Monnie said, to comfort herself.
+
+In two hours everything was as settled about the camp as if they had
+lived there a week, and every one was hungry again. Hungriness and
+sleepiness came just as regularly as if they had had nights and clocks
+both, to measure time by.
+
+When the food was ready, Kesshoo called "Ujo, ujo," which meant "boiled
+meat," and everybody came running to the beach.
+
+The men sat in one circle, the women and children in another. Pots of
+boiled fish were set in the middle of the circles, and they all dipped
+in with their fingers and took what they wanted.
+
+When everybody had eaten, the children played on the beach. They
+skipped stones and danced and played ball, and their mothers played
+with them.
+
+The men had their fun, too. They sat in their circle, told stories, and
+played games which weren't children's games, and the Angakok sang a
+song, beating time on a little drum. All the men sang the chorus.
+
+By and by, Koolee saw Monnie's head nodding. So she said to the twins,
+"Come, children, let's go up to the tent."
+
+She took their hands and led them up the slope.
+
+"We're not sleepy," the twins declared.
+
+"I am," said Koolee, "and I want you with me."
+
+They went into the tent, which was not so light as it was out of doors
+in the bright sunlight. Then they undressed, crawled in among the
+deerskins, and were soon sound asleep, all three of them. After a while
+Kesshoo came up from the beach and went to sleep too.
+
+
+
+
+X.  THE SUMMER DAY
+
+THE SUMMER DAY
+
+I.
+
+
+The summer days flew by, only one really shouldn't say days at all, but
+summer day. For three whole bright months it was just one daylight
+picnic all the time!
+
+The people ate when they were hungry and slept when they were sleepy.
+The men caught hundreds of salmon, and the women split them open and
+dried them on the rocks for winter use. The children played all day
+long.
+
+The men hunted deer and musk-ox and bears up in the hills and brought
+them back to camp. They hunted game both by land and by sea. There was
+so much to eat that everybody grew fatter, and as for the Angakok, he
+got so very fat that Koko said to Menie, "I don't believe we can ever
+get the Angakok home in the woman-boat! He's so heavy he'll sink it! I
+think it would be a good plan to tie a string to him and tow him back
+like a walrus!"
+
+"Yes," said Menie. "Maybe he would shrink some if we soaked him well.
+Don't you know how water shrinks the walrus hide cords that we tie
+around things when we want them to hold tight together?"
+
+It was lucky for Menie and Koko that nobody heard them say that about
+the Angakok. It would have been thought very disrespectful.
+
+When the game grew scarce, or they got tired of camping in one spot
+everything was piled into their boats again, and away they went up the
+coast until they found another place they liked better. Then they would
+set up their tents again.
+
+Sometimes they came to other camps and had a good time meeting new
+people and making new friends.
+
+At last, late in August, the sun slipped down below the edge of the
+World again. It stayed just long enough to fill the sky with wonderful
+red and gold sunset clouds, then it came up again. The next night there
+was a little time between the sunset sky and the lovely colors of the
+sunrise.
+
+The next night was longer still. Each day grew colder and colder. Still
+the people lingered in their tents. They did not like to think the
+pleasant summer was over, and the long night near.
+
+But at last Kesshoo said, "I think it is time to go back to winter
+quarters. The nights are fast growing longer. The snow may be upon us
+any day now. I don't know of a better place to settle than the village
+where we spent last winter. The igloos are all built there ready to use
+again. What do you say? Shall we go back there?"
+
+"Yes, let us go back," they all said.
+
+
+II.
+
+The very next day they started. The boats were heavily loaded with
+dried fish, there were great piles of new skins heaped in the
+woman-boats, and every kyak towed a seal.
+
+For days they traveled along the coast, stopping only for rest and
+food. The twins and Koko sat in the bottom of the boat with the dogs,
+and listened to the regular dip of the paddles, to the cries of the
+sea-birds as they flew away toward the south, and to the chatter of the
+women. These were almost the only sounds they heard, for the silence of
+the Great White World was all about them. They talked together in low
+voices and planned all the things they would do when the long night was
+really upon them once more.
+
+When at last they came in sight of the Big Rock, they felt as if they
+had reached home after a very long journey.
+
+Koko stood up in the boat and pointed to it. "See," he cried, "there's
+the Big Rock where we found the bear!"
+
+"Yes," Monnie said, "and where we slid downhill."
+
+"And I see where I got caught on the ice raft," Menie shouted.
+
+"Sit down," said Koko's mother. "You'll tip the boat and spill us all
+into the water."
+
+Koko sat down; the boat glided along through the water, nearer and
+nearer, until at last they came round the Big Rock, and there, just as
+if they had not been away at all, lay the whole village of five igloos,
+looking as if it had gone to sleep in the sunshine.
+
+The big boats waited until the men had all paddled to the shore and
+beached their kyaks, then they were drawn carefully up on to the sand,
+and every one got out. The beach at once became a very busy place. The
+men pulled the walruses and seals out of the water and took care of the
+boats, while the women set up the tents, cut the meat into big pieces
+for storage, and carried all their belongings to the tents.
+
+Although the village looked just the same, other things looked quite
+different. Nip and Tup were big dogs by this time. They ran away up the
+beach with Tooky and the other dogs the moment they were out of the
+boats. They did not stay with the twins all the time now, as they used
+to do. The twins were much bigger, too. Koolee looked at them as they
+helped her carry the tent-skins up from the beach, and said to them,
+"My goodness, I must make my needles fly! Winter is upon us and your
+clothes are getting too small for you! You must have new things right
+away." The twins thought this was a very good idea. They liked new
+clothes as well as any one in the world.
+
+Koolee set up the tent beside their old igloo, and there they lived
+while the men of the village went out every day in their kyaks for seal
+and walrus, or back into the hills after other game to store away for
+food during the long winter. The women scraped and cured the skins and
+cut up the meat and packed it away as fast as the men could kill the
+game and bring it home.
+
+Each day it grew colder, and each night was longer than the last, until
+one short September day there came a great snow storm! It snowed all
+day long, and that night the wind blew so hard that Koolee and the
+twins nearly froze even among the fur covers of their bed, and when
+morning came they found themselves nearly buried under a great drift.
+
+That very day Koolee put the stones over the roof of the igloo once
+more, and the twins helped her fill in the chinks with moss and earth,
+and cover it with a heavy layer of snow, patted down with the snow
+shovel, until everything was snug and tight again.
+
+Then they moved in. By the next day all the igloos in the village were
+in use, and when night came their windows shone with the light of the
+lamps, just as they had so many months before.
+
+Nip and Tup slept outside with Tooky now, in a snow house which Kesshoo
+had built for them. Menie and Monnie missed them, but Koolee said, "You
+are getting so big now you must begin to do something besides play with
+puppies. Monnie must learn to sew, and Menie must help Father with
+feeding the dogs and looking after their harnesses, and driving the
+sledge."
+
+"Maybe Father will teach you both to carve fine things out of ivory
+this winter! Monnie will soon need her own thimble and needles. They
+must be made. And she can help me clean the skins and suck out the
+blubber, and prepare them for being made into clothes!"
+
+"Dear me! what a lot there is to do to keep clothes on our backs and
+food in our mouths! The Giants are always waiting before the igloo and
+we must work very hard to keep them outside!"
+
+She did not mean real giants. She meant that Hunger and Want are always
+waiting to seize the Eskimo who does not work all the time to supply
+food for himself and his family. She meant that Menie must learn to be
+a brave strong hunter, afraid of nothing on sea or land, and that
+Monnie must learn to do a woman's work well, or else the time would
+come when they would be without food or shelter or clothing, and the
+fierce cold would soon make an end of them.
+
+It was lucky they got into the warm igloo just when they did, for the
+winter had come to stay. The bay froze over far out from shore, and the
+white snow covered the igloos so completely that if it had not been for
+the windows, and for people moving about out of doors, no one could
+have told that there was any village there.
+
+The Last Day of all was so short that Menie and Monnie and Koko saw the
+whole of it from the top of the Big Rock! They had gone up there in the
+gray twilight that comes before the sunrise to build a snow house to
+play in. They had been there only a little while when the sky grew all
+rosy just over the Edge of the World. The color grew stronger and
+stronger until the little stars were all drowned in it and then up came
+the great round red face of the sun itself! The children watched it as
+it peered over the horizon, threw long blue shadows behind them across
+the snow, and then sank slowly, slowly down again, leaving only the
+flaming colors in the sky to mark the place where it had been. They
+waved their hands as it slipped out of sight. "Good bye, old Sun," they
+shouted, "and good bye, Shadow, too! We shall be glad to see you both
+when you come back again."
+
+Then, because the wind blew very cold and they could see a snow cloud
+coming toward them from the Great White World where the Giants lived,
+the children ran together down the snowy slope toward the bright
+windows of their homes.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS
+
+To arouse the children's interest and thus to make the reading of this
+story most valuable as a school exercise, it is suggested that at the
+outset the children be allowed to look at the pictures in the book in
+order to get acquainted with "Menie" and "Monnie" and with the scenes
+illustrating their home life and surroundings.
+
+During the reading, point out the North Pole, Greenland, etc., on a map
+of the world or on a globe, and tell the children something about the
+many years of effort before Peary succeeded in reaching his goal; also
+about the work of subsequent explorers in this part of the world, and
+around the South Pole as well. Thus this supplementary reading material
+may be connected with the work in geography.
+
+The text is so simply written that the second grade child can read it
+without much or any preparation. It may be well to have the children
+read it first in a study period in order to work out the pronunciation
+of the more difficult words. But many classes will be able to read it
+at sight, without the preparatory study. The possibilities in the story
+for dramatization and for language and constructive work will be
+immediately apparent.
+
+In connection with the reading of the book, teachers should tell to the
+children stories describing Eskimo life, and the experiences of
+explorers and pioneers in the North. Grenfell's Adrift on an Ice-Pan is
+suitable, for example. Holbrook's Northland Heroes and Schultz's
+Sinopah, the Indian Boy, while not belonging to the land of the
+Eskimos, contain stories of allied interest. Let the children bring to
+class pictures of scenes in the North, clipped from magazines and
+newspapers.
+
+The unique illustrations in The Eskimo Twins should be much used, both
+in the reading of the story and in other ways. Children will enjoy
+sketching some of them; their simple treatment makes them especially
+useful for this purpose.
+
+The book is printed on paper which will take watercolor well, and where
+the books are individually owned some of the sketches could be used for
+coloring in flat washes. They also afford suggestions for action
+sketching by the children.
+
+An excellent oral language exercise would be for the children, after
+they have read the story, to take turns telling the story from the
+illustrations; and a good composition exercise would be for each child
+to select the illustration that he would like to write upon, make a
+sketch of it, and write the story in his own words.
+
+These are only a few of the many ways that will occur to resourceful
+teachers for making the book a valuable as well as an enjoyable
+exercise in reading.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Eskimo Twins, by Lucy Fitch Perkins
+
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