AND KAYAK 193 



excepting when somebody coming in hastily 

 opened the door and hastily banged it shut 

 again. So I did a great amount of thinking 

 about those windows, and this is the way the 

 solution came. 



Tomas was building a new house, and he 

 came to me with a very simple request. " I 

 want to build a good house," he said, " because 

 I catch many seals. I want glass windows, 

 not windows of seals' bowels : I want to be 

 able to see out of my windows when the days 

 are fine. Can you find me a piece of proper 

 wood for a window frame among the wood 

 that you have ? " " By all means," I told 

 him ; " here is a piece of soft pine : and you 

 shall have it without payment if you will make 

 a window like this of mine that opens on 

 hinges." Tomas studied my window, and 

 opened it and shut it, and grinned, and looked 

 at me and coveted that piece of pine. " Yes," 

 he said, " it shall be " ; and off he trotted with 

 his prize surely the first Eskimo house - 

 improvements prize ! I walked along several 

 times to see how he was getting along with 

 his new house and his new window ; and I 

 found that^another man, quite a poorjjfellow, 

 who was building himself a tiny hut near by, 

 was also making a window to open. He had 

 seen Tomas at work, and, of course, was 



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