Page:Eskimo Folk-Tales (1921).djvu/154

134 "Now I can see her, away to the south."

They looked out and saw her, and she seemed mightily big, having something on her back. And she came quickly nearer. Then they heard a great noise, and that was the woman throwing down her burden. She came in hot and tired, and sat down, and said:

"Thanks, kind little boys. I had to leave him alone in the house, as usual, and now you have stayed with him while I was fearing for him on my way."

Then she turned to her son, and said:

"Have they not eaten yet?"

"No," said the boy. And when he had said that, she went out, and came in with dried flesh of fox and reindeer, and a big piece of suet. And very glad they were to eat that food. At first they did not eat any of the dried fox meat, but when they tasted it, they found it was wonderfully good to eat.

Now when they had eaten their fill, they sat there feeling glad. And then the little boy whispered something in his mother's ear.

"He has a great desire for one of your sets of arrows, if you would not refuse to give it." And they gave him that.

In the evening, when they thought it was time to rest, a bed was made for them under the window, and when this was done the woman said:

"Now sleep, and do not fear any evil thing."

They slept and slept, and when they awoke, the woman had been awake a long time already.

And when they were setting off to go home again, she paid them for their arrows with as much meat as they could carry; and when they went off, she said:

"Be sure you do not let any others come selling arrows."

But in the meantime, the people of the village had begun to fear for those two boys, because they did not come home. When at last they appeared in the evening, many went out to meet them. And it was a great load they had to carry.

"Where have you been?" they asked.

"We have been in a house with one who was not a real man."

They tasted the food they had brought. And it was wonderfully good to eat.