AND KAYAK 199 



morning singing caught their fancy at once, 

 for singing always appeals to them. A grim- 

 faced deputation called upon me to know if 

 it was true that there was going to be singing 

 at nine o'clock. " Yes," said I. " Then the 

 people want to know if they may come, even 

 when they are not sick, just for the singing, 

 and then go home again." " By all means, 

 let them come and help with the singing." 

 And the deputation retired, smiling and 

 nakomek-ing. 



" Now," thought I, "we are likely to have 

 a crowd : what are we to do for benches ? ): 

 I set a small boy to scour the village for the 

 two worthies who shared the honourable and 

 responsible position of public carpenter ; and 

 when, after a due interval, they arrived, 

 having been discovered, without doubt, sharing 

 a solid meal of fresh seal meat in some hunter's 

 house, I took them into my plans. Peter and 

 David, the worthy carpenters in question, 

 nodded sagely and said " Taimak " (so be it) ; 

 and we made our way to the attic. There 

 we attacked the disused packing-cases, and 

 knocked them to pieces and pulled the nails 

 out, and planed the boards to a reasonable 

 smoothness, and by dint of much measuring 

 and sawing and hammering evolved a dozen 

 very decent little benches out of the pile. 



