CHAPTER IX 



Springtime Travelling by boat Daniel Among the ice pans 

 Daniel as cook A nigbt among the ice -The little whirlpool 

 Mutton in the kettle Singing the night away Benjie. 



A") the long winter passes and the warm 

 spring sun begins to melt the ice on 

 the sea and soften the snow on the 

 hillsides, there comes the time when the 

 Eskimos begin to dig their boats out of the 

 snowdrifts where they have lain through all 

 the cold and stormy days, and make them 

 ready for the water. 



You may hear a shuffling of feet in the 

 passage, and a shaggy head peers around the 

 corner of your door, and a voice asks you 

 whether you have an old saucepan to give 

 away, or a butter tin that you do not want, 

 for here is a man who wants to boil some tar 

 to stop the leaky places in his boat. 



Day by day the tides come oozing up the 

 beach under the ice ; big cracks show in the 

 broad sheet that covers the sea, until at last 

 the sea ice is broken and floating in pieces, 

 and some bright morning the west wind 



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