262 PREPARING FOR WINTER 



disappearing sun ; when darkness set in, her young ones 

 would be able to look after themselves. Camilla, by 

 the way, had her own views of bringing up her children. 

 What there was about the hospital that she did not like 

 I do not know, but it is certain that she preferred any 

 other place. It was no rare thing to come across 

 Camilla in a tearing gale and a temperature twenty 

 below zero with one of her offspring in her mouth. 

 She was going out to look for a new place. Mean- 

 while, the three others, who had to wait, were shrieking 

 and howling. The places she chose were not, as a rule, 

 such as we should connect with the idea of comfort; 

 a case, for instance, standing on its side, and fully 

 exposed to the wind, or behind a stack of planks, with 

 a draught coming through that would have done credit 

 to a factory chimney. But if she liked it, there was 

 nothing to be said. If the family were left alone in 

 such a place, she would spend some days there before 

 moving on again. She never returned to the hospital 

 voluntarily, but it was not a rare thing to see Johansen, 

 who was guardian to the family, hauling off the lady 

 and as many of her little ones as he could get hold of in 

 a hurry. They then disappeared into the hospital with 

 words of encouragement. 



At the same time we introduced a new order of 

 things with our dogs. Hitherto we had been obliged to 

 keep them tied up on account of seal-hunting ; otherwise 

 they went off by themselves and ravaged. There were 



