Part 24 (1/2)
”I should just pretty nearly think I would.”
”You dance heap good. b.u.t.tons no all done.” He put four little ivory crows into the Boy's hands. They were rudely but cleverly carved, with eyes outlined in ink, and supplied under the breast with a neat inward-cut shank.
”Mighty fine!” The Boy examined them by the strange glow that brightened in the sky.
”You keep.”
”Oh no, can't do that.”
”_Yes!_” Nicholas spoke peremptorily. ”Yukon men have big feast, must bring present. Me no got reindeer, me got b.u.t.ton.” He grinned.
”Goo'-bye.” And the last of the guests went his way.
It was only habit that kept the Colonel toasting by the fire before he turned in, for the cabin was as warm to-night as the South in mid-summer.
_”Gra.s.shoppah sett'n on a swee' p'tater vine,”_
The Boy droned sleepily as he untied the leathern thongs that kept up his muckluck legs--
_”Swee' p'tater vine, swee' p'ta--”_
”All those othahs”--the Colonel waved a hand in the direction of Pymeut--”I think we dreamed 'em, Boy. You and me playing the Big Game with Fohtune. Foolishness! Klond.y.k.e? Yoh crazy. Tell me the river's hard as iron and the snow's up to the windah? Don' b'lieve a wo'd of it. We're on some plantation, Boy, down South, in the n.i.g.g.ah quawtaws.”
The Boy was turning back the covers, and balancing a moment on the side of the bunk.
_”Sett'n on a swee' p'tater vine, swee' p'ta--”_
”Great Caesar's ghost!” He jumped up, and stood staring down at the sleeping Kaviak.
”Ah--a--didn't you know? He's been left behind for a few days.”
”Yes, I can see he's left behind. No, Colonel, I reckon we're in the Arctic regions all right when it comes to catchin' Esquimers in your bed!”
He pulled the furs over Kaviak and himself, and curled down to sleep.
CHAPTER V
THE SHAMaN.
”For my part, I have ever believed and do now know, that there are witches.”--_Religio Medici._
The Boy had hoped to go to Pymeut the next day, but his feet refused to carry him. Mac took a diagram and special directions, and went after the rest of elephas, conveying the few clumsy relics home, bit by bit, with a devotion worthy of a pious pilgrim.
For three days the Boy growled and played games with Kaviak, going about at first chiefly on hands and knees.
On the fifth day after the Blow-Out, ”You comin' long to Pymeut this mornin'?” he asked the Colonel.