72 BY ESKIMO DOG-SLED 



night time we came to Hebron, with the trim 

 little figure in his sealskins trotting tirelessly 

 on ; and such was my first meeting with 

 Johannes. 



I got to know him better later on, for after 

 that run to Hebron I took him as driver on 

 all my journeys, and the better I knew the 

 little man the more I liked him. He was 

 always cheerful, which is a great thing, 

 especially when your lunch sandwiches are 

 frozen like stone, and make your teeth ache, 

 or when your toes are cold and you dare not 

 jump off and run to warm them, because if 

 you did you would sink in the soft snow up 

 to your neck. But those were the times when 

 Johannes was more cheerful than usual ; and 

 I think that he was really at his best when a 

 storm was blowing. 



On one of our journeys we had come through 

 a biting wind upon the mountain passes, and 

 were happy to be on the sea ice again and in 

 the cold winter sunshine. But as the after- 

 noon wore on and the sun sank the wind began 

 to follow us again. The air had a queer 

 threatening chill in it ; little eddies of snow 

 came whirling along the floor, whisking round 

 us and poking up our sleeves and down our 

 necks, and the dogs dropped their tails and 

 huddled together and whined as they ran. 



