34 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



girls seemed to take it all as a joke, for they 

 shrieked with merriment as they pulled at the 

 comers of the tent-cover and tried to get the 

 poles clear. While they were busy at their 

 work a woman came out of a tent close by. I 

 suppose that she was their mother, for she held 

 up her hands and said, " Ai, ai," as much as to 

 say, " What a thing to happen " ; then she, 

 too, burst out laughing and went to help the 

 girls. 



However, to go back to Bob and his tent. 



As we went along the path, Bob trotting in 

 front and I following sedately behind, we came 

 upon a little girl squatting on the ground, 

 solemnly stirring the contents of a big cooking 

 pot which stood upon a rough fireplace of 

 stones. She fed the fire with bits of brush- 

 wood, and " shooed " the hungry dogs away. 

 She looked up shyly as we passed, and I saw 

 the family likeness at once. She had the same 

 tumbled mop of black hair, the same little 

 twinkling eyes, the same small nose and plump 

 ruddy cheeks, the same expression of face, as 

 her father. The sound of our footsteps brought 

 three or four other small folks scrambling out 

 of the tent, each one a repetition of the others 

 on a different scale. They joined hands and 

 stood in a row, gazing with awestruck eyes at 

 the stranger. This was evidently Bob's family, 



