CHAPTER XV 



THE WONDERFUL COLLECTION 



This is the tale of the time when the shadow of 

 famine lay upon our village. It was the winter of 

 191 1 ; the sledges were coming home from the seal- 

 ing places, home for Christmas, and day by day as 

 the sledges came we heard the same story, "No 

 seals." Day by day we saw the trotting dogs come 

 round the point, dragging the sledges along the 

 smooth track that crossed our bay ; day by day the 

 eager people rushed from the village to meet the 

 newcomers, and always with the question, "Have 

 you seals.'*" But always the same answer, always 

 the same shake of the head, whether the sledges 

 came from the islands by the ocean's edge or from 

 the sheltered channels of the mainland : "No seals 

 at all puijekarungnaipok, tava." 



In spite of toilsome hauling of nets, in spite of 

 daily watching in skin canoes upon the icy water, the 

 seal-hunt was a failure. And now the autumn hunt- 

 ing was over : the sea was frozen. One seal was 

 caught, and only one ; it was found in the net that 

 belonged to the storekeeper. He, good man, had 

 been thinking of food for his team of dogs, but he 

 handed that seal over to the elders of the village, 

 telling them to share it among the people as a 

 Christmas dinner for the village, and so the folk got 

 their one square meal of the food they loved. 



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