Part 35 (2/2)

”_Ikewna_,” I suggested.

”I've noticed Wade has been a little _distrait_ for some time,” Raed observed. ”Possibly he sighs for the beauteous _Ikewna_!”

Wade laughed.

”Somebody else was a little sweet on a certain yellow-gloved damsel: rather stout she was, if I recollect aright. Mind who that was, Raed?”

”Ah! you refer to _Pussay_,” Raed replied. ”Well, she was a trifle adipose. But that's a merit in this country, I should judge. Lean folks never could stand these winters.”

”And where now is the beautiful '_White Goose_,' I wonder!” Kit exclaimed.

”And black-eyed _Caubvick_!” said I. ”Answer, Echo!”

”This crew may be a part of the same lot,” Donovan suggested.

”It isn't likely,” said Raed. ”We are now a hundred and fifty miles farther west than the Middle Savage Isles. It is hardly possible. But I dare say they are as much like them as peas in a pod.”

The _oomiak_ pa.s.sed us about a mile to the eastward, and, approaching the sh.o.r.e of the large island, was luffed up to the wind handsomely.

More than a dozen dogs leaped out, and went splas.h.i.+ng to the sh.o.r.e.

The men landed from the _kayaks_, and, wading out into the water, laid hold of the _oomiak_, and, guiding it in on the swell, carried it up high and dry. Several of the children had jumped out with the dogs.

The women, old folks, and younger children, now followed. The sh.o.r.e fairly swarmed. We could hear them shouting, screaming, and jabbering, and the dogs barking. Guard looked off and growled slightly, turning his great dark eyes inquiringly to our faces.

”He don't like the looks of them,” said Donovan: ”remembers the fuss he had with them when they chased Palmleaf and him.”

”They seem to be preparing to stop there, I should say,” Kit remarked.

”They've pulled up the _oomiak_ some way from the water, out of reach of the tide, and are unloading it. There are quant.i.ties of skins, tents, harpoons, &c. There! they are all starting up from the water, loaded down with trumpery,--going off from the sh.o.r.e toward the middle of the island.”

They had not seen us; and, after watching them disappear among the barren hillocks, we went back to our camp for dinner. Unless they came along to the extreme western end of the large island, they would not discover our camp. At first, we decided to have nothing to do with them. We had nothing in the ”_chymo_” line except Wade's broken bayonet. They would only be a nuisance with us.

”But, if we could contrive to make them catch seals for us for fuel, it might be worth while to cultivate their acquaintance a little,” Kit suggested.

”If we could get a seal a day from them for our fire, it might be a good plan enough,” Wade thought.

”But we've nothing to pay them with; unless we paid them in promises of iron and knives when our _s.h.i.+p comes back_,” I said. ”I don't suppose our greenbacks would be a legal tender with them.”

”But, in case 'The Curlew' should _not_ come back, we might not be able to redeem our promises,” Raed remarked.

”In that case,” said Kit, ”we might as well marry all their daughters, and take up our abode here. As their sons-in-law, we could perhaps excuse it to them.”

”Possibly the daughters might object to this arrangement,” said Wade.

”Why, you don't doubt your ability to win the affections of a Husky belle, do you?” demanded Kit, laughing.

”I doubt if our accomplishments would be rated very high among the fair Esquimaux,” said Raed. ”Not to be able to catch seals is deemed a great disgrace with them. Our going to them to beg seal-blubber would be a very black mark. We should be looked upon much in the light of paupers. No young Husky thinks of proposing to his lady-love till he has become an expert seal-catcher.”

”It seems hard not to be thought eligible even by a Husky family,” Kit observed. ”But let's go over there and see what we can do. If we can't trade with them, we might lay them under contribution by force of arms. What say to beginning our career as conquerors by subjugating that island of Esquimaux, and levying a seal-tax? That's the way our Saxon ancestors first entered England. Has the sanction of history, you see,--as far down even as the ex-emperor Napoleon III.”

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