ON HERSCHEL AND FLAXMAN ISLANDS 333 



pemmican had been boiling on the stove all day, jam and 



crackers were served, and as much tea as our guests would care 



to drink. The dancing they supplied themselves, and the 



pauses were filled with the sounds of the phonograph. And 



when the time came to say good-bye, each woman received as a 



parting present a piece of 



calico for a snowshirt, each 



man some tobacco, a pipe, 



or other small article, while 



the children ate the candy 



which Dr. Leffingwell had 



sent up for his son, and as a 



finish to the evening, I gave 



each of the people who had 



been kindest to us some 



pieces of personal wearing 



apparel. At last good-bye 



was said, and they started for 



, , / . ESKIMO GRAVES. 



home, a long, long streak, 



with a woman ahead, and after her team after team with 

 the children sitting on top of the sledges, the men and 

 women running beside them, laughing and talking. 



While these happy children of nature, in a long Indian 

 file, were winding their way home to the small igloos, Mr. 

 Leffingwell and I sat in our house, talking over old times and 

 the future which lay before us. We had many things to talk 

 about, which we had kept for the last moment ; there were 

 greetings to be sent to his parents, whom I was going to see 

 when I again reached the civilized world, and, last of all, I tried 

 to explain to him how much his friendship meant for me, how 

 sincerely I had appreciated his presence during our eighteen 

 months' stay in the Arctic, and how sorry I was to leave him, 

 practically alone, in these cold and inhospitable regions, while 

 I was to return to the outer world, to the warm summer and 

 our friends. 



But the morrow was coming, the day when I was to start on 

 the long and dreary tramp ; I had to get as much sleep as 

 possible, so we said good night to each other, turned in and 

 slept, I for the last time in the house in which, against my will, 

 so many changes had been wrought in my plans. 



