AN ARCTIC HONEYMOON 



and gossiping — at least so I supposed — and they had given 

 me a particular invitation to be present. I thought I would 

 give them a little treat, so I carried out a pail of lemonade, 

 which they drank with keen relish. When it was gone I 

 gave the lemons remaining in the pail a toss, when presto, 

 each piece was clutched from the ground as if it had been 

 worked by a spring. I do not remember ever seeing these 

 people show a dislike for 

 anything we gave them in 

 the line of food, but im- 

 agine they may have suf- 

 fered somewhat from its 

 variety. 



At length the time for 

 the ship to return drew 

 near, and we told the 

 natives we would give 

 twenty biscuits to the one 

 who first announced it to 

 be in sight. Early on the 

 morning of September 5, 

 Daniel rushed in out of 

 breath crying "oomiaksua" 

 (the ship). Yes, it was 

 true, and before long appeared old Keshu, the Cape York Eski- 

 mo, who was so fond of "Lee," and had been watching for him 

 ever since the ship had started back, and such a jabbering 

 took place that I couldn't tell which was Eskimo and which 

 American. 



When he found that Mr. Lee had a " koona " (wife), he 

 seemed to take it as a great joke, but told him he approved 

 of me because I didn't shrink from shaking hands. 



Soon we received calls from the different members of the 

 ship's party, and in a short time were back on the " Hope," 

 bound for home. It almost seemed to me that I was 

 leaving home, I had enjoyed it all so much. On the return 

 trip we were greatly entertained by the interest which the 

 six Eskimo exhibited as they drew near civilization; all 

 except Ahtungua, who was so sick all the way. The poor 

 things were horribly frightened when we were enveloped 

 in a very dense fog, and the fog whistle blew every few 



A REVERIE 



173 



