42 



-Woe/ 

 andMooka 



deep woods every night, hungry for a taste 

 of the little pigs ; and now and then an enor- 

 mous polar bear, that had landed from an 

 iceberg, would shuffle swiftly and fearlessly 

 among the handful of little cabins, leaving 

 his great footprints in every yard and tearing 

 to pieces, as if made of straw, the heavy log 

 pens to which some of the fishermen had 

 foolishly confided their pigs or sheep. He 

 even entered the woodsheds and rummaged 

 about after a stray fishbone or an old seal- 

 skin boot, making a great rowdydow in the 

 still night ; and only the smell of man, or the 

 report of an old gun fired at him by some 

 brave woman out of the half-open window, 

 kept him from pushing his enormous weight 

 against the very doors of the cabins. 



Thinking of all these things, Mooka for- 

 got her fears of the white wolves, remember- 

 ing with a kind of sympathy how hungry all 

 these shy prowlers must be to leave their 

 own haunts, whence the rabbits and 

 seals had vanished, and 

 venture boldly into the 

 yards of men. As for 'ggsggjlj 



'He.:?:".--. ••■:.- 



