ance always threatened our gravity till we came 

 to know what a good, common-sense little girl 

 she is. One of her cheeks, the left one, is vastly 

 larger than the other, which gives her face a 

 curiously one - sided aspect. Esanetuk prints 

 beautifully with the chalk crayon, and also 

 draws, after a queer, homely fashion of her own. 

 My wife is very fond of her. 



Near her sat Tukeliketa, whose face always 

 shone like a freshly fried doughnut. She was 

 the greasiest child I ever saw; in Biblical lan- 

 guage, her little hard braids of hair might be 

 said to " drop fatness. " Her book, soaked with 

 grease, would have burned like a candle-wick. 

 It took Mrs. Gambell most of the winter to teach 

 Tukeliketa — the name means ' ' butterfly — to use 

 soap and abjure grease externally. 



Another little girl, who put my wife to much 

 trouble, was called Coogidlore. She seemed to 

 be affected with constitutional drowsiness. It 

 was nearly impossible to keep her awake in 

 school hours. We would hear a little " purring " 

 sound, and that would be Coogidlore asleep at 

 her desk. The lirst time she came, I heard the 

 noise, and thought it was the purring of Nossa- 

 bok's cat. Very soon she rolled off her seat to 

 the floor beneath the desk. Mrs. Gambell 

 roused her and set her to study, but within five 

 minutes she was sound asleep again. 



Most of the girls, as I have said before, were 

 very bashful; and Annevik, who sought a seat 

 in the extreme dark corner, was painfully so. 



This child lived in a very agony of shyness. If I 

 glanced in her direction, she would cringe and 

 hide her face. For several weeks she wore her 

 little parka of blue fox fur hindside before, in 

 order to have the hood in front to hide her face in. 



Little enough like Annevik was Topetatu, 

 whom Mrs. Gambell called "Topsy." Her Eski- 

 mo mother had arrayed her in a kind of gown, 

 made of cotton print, with large yellow sun- 

 flowers on it. This tremendous innovation in 

 "style" had been obtained from a whaling ves- 

 sel which had once anchored in the bay. Mrs. 

 Gambell laughed till the tears came when Topsy 

 first appeared at school in that ludicrous gown. 

 Her hair was tightly braided in nine little rat- 

 tails at variovis angles ; her little eyes twinkled 

 with merriment; her thick lips were usually 

 vs^ide apart, showing a row of broad white teeth. 

 Topsy was quick to learn, but forgot everything 

 by the next day. For a long time she seemed to 

 us to have no memory whatever. 



Behind Topsy sat a good, strong girl, named 

 Tummasok, who was supposed to be thirteen 

 years old. This was the girl who struck the 

 white bear's nose with the iron poker ; and she 

 was, I think, our most typical Mahlemiut girl. 

 After the tenth of December Tummasok rarely 

 failed to appear at the schoolhouse, and always 

 wore sealskin boots and a white fox parka and 

 hood. Her stepfather was known to be very 

 cruel to her, but this she constantly denied when, 

 my wife questioned her. 



