Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/225

Rh gooploo and Ahsayoo went back across the bay to bring out the rest of the meat and skins, and I remained in camp to rest my feet, raw and bruised from the sharp rocks during the hunt, and to look after the calves. They showed no fear, but came right into the tent, where I fed them with biscuit soaked in water and a little milk, then curled up against me and went to sleep while I wrote up my journal. They were still very tired. Later in the day when I climbed the slopes back of my tent to see through my glasses what my men were doing in the distant valley, they followed me, and, coming upon a bit of willow, began eating it eagerly.

I was delighted to find they were old enough to eat something besides milk, and I led them about from sprig to sprig of the stunted willow which grew here and there among the rocks, until they had had a good breakfast. Then they followed me back to the tent for another nap.

Later they came up to me again for their lunch, and before the day was over I had named them Yankee Doodle and Miss Columbia, because I first saw them on the Fourth of July.

I was thinking, too, that if I could only get them to the ship and keep them till the ice would break up and let the ship sail home, what fine pets they would make for a little blue-eyed girl I knew at home, who had herself been born in the Arctic regions, hardly more than a hundred miles from where I found the musk-oxen.

The Eskimos were gone a long time, and after the sun swung round into the north and hid behind the mountains, I rolled myself in my blanket and went to sleep, leaving my little friends browsing contentedly just back of the tent. Some hours later my men returning woke me, and when I asked about the calves, said that they were still back of the tent. So I turned over for another nap.



When I woke again, and after listening for some time heard nothing of the little fellows, I crawled out of the tent and climbed the slope, but could not see them anywhere. Then I woke sharp-eyed Ahsayoo and told him to trail them.

After a long time he came back and told me he had followed their tracks far up the valley, but had not seen them. They had evidently started off soon after the dogs came back, and, having had a good rest