360 CONQUERING THE ARCTIC ICE 



Icy Cape, and I was glad I had taken the boy with me. We 

 had a hard day's travelling and did not reach the school-house 

 where we intended to pass the night until 8 P.M. My dogs 

 were too tired to fight, and we entered the village without 

 making any noise. When I pushed open the door of the 

 school-house, the teacher, Mr. Fellows, was playing some games 

 with the natives. He looked up casually, expecting me to be 

 an Eskimo, and this was indeed his first impression of the fur 

 clad and dirty figure who stood in his room beating the snow 

 from his furs. But then a great smile overspread Mr. Fellows' 

 features; he had discovered that the traveller had a beard, he 

 jumped up, looked at me for a little while, stepped across some 

 children who were playing on the floor, shook hands with me, 

 and by way of starting a conversation told me that I looked as 

 if I might " be a white man." 



Of course I knew Mr. Fellows from the time we went up and 

 stopped at Icy Cape, and I had heard that he was still there, so 

 I had the advantage of him, who did not know what to make 

 of me. However, he immediately turned out the Eskimos, lit 

 a fire, and was soon busy cooking, and all the time he must 

 have been thinking " Who can he be ? " for all of a sudden he 

 rushed into the room, where I stood washing myself, and asked 

 me smilingly whether I was not Mikkelsen. I thought he had 

 recognized me ; but such is the hospitality of the Arctic that a 

 perfect stranger may arrive at a house and at once a meal will 

 be set before him. If he tells his name, of course his hosts are 

 pleased, but if he is not inclined to do so, no one will ask him 

 who he is. They may wonder, perhaps, but asking is not 

 considered good manners in Alaska. 



Mr. Fellows was very glad to see me, as I was the first white 

 man he had seen since September, when the last steamer had 

 passed. And no wonder, for the life he lives as a single man, 

 with no one to speak to but the natives for month after month, 

 must be deadening. I have been kindly received in many 

 places, both before and later, but nothing equalled Mr. Fellows' 

 hospitality. I was very tired, and when I had eaten my supper 

 I wanted to spread out my sleeping bag and go to sleep. But 

 Mr. Fellows would not hear of that ; I was to sleep with him 

 in his bed, the best and warmest place in the house. I con- 

 sented with pleasure, and was soon fast asleep. 



