AND KAYAK 159 



among the others, in the hope that some other 

 back will get a share of the beating : but 

 perhaps he whimpered partly because there 

 was some memory in his doggy mind of that 

 day last winter when he went a-wandering in 

 the woods and smelt a beautiful smell of 

 rotten meat. Perhaps in his mind he was 

 licking his lips over the memory of that 

 lovely smell : it was just the thing that an 

 Eskimo dog would enjoy a piece of seal 

 flipper, horrible and nasty ; it was buried in 

 the snow by the stump of a tree, but the big 

 dog nosed it out and pawed the snow away. 

 Then there was a horrid snap, and a great 

 steel trap had him fast by the foot. He 

 howled and struggled, but it was a long time 

 before he got free and limped home again. 

 His master looked at him when he came out 

 with the tub of dogs' food that evening. 

 44 Ha," he said, 44 1 see where you have been, 

 you greedy rascal. Why can you not leave 

 the traps for the foxes, and be content with 

 your own food at home, you bad old thing ? " 

 And then he found a piece of sealskin, and 

 tied the poor foot up to save it from the frost- 

 bite, and so the toes got well again. But the 

 fox trap by the tree stump up in the woods 

 is the reason why that big yellow dog limps 

 when he runs with the rest of the team. 



