noon, little Noel and his sister Mooka were 
going on wonderful sledge journeys, meet- 
ing wolves and polar bears and caribou and 
all sorts of adventures, more wonderful by 
far than any that ever came to imagination V 
astride of a rocking-horse. They had a rare 
team of dogs, Caesar and Wolf and Grouch 
and the rest, — five or six uneasy crabs \ 
which they had caught and harnessed to a tiny sledge 
made from a curved root and a shingle tied together 
with a bit of sea-kelp. And when the crabs scurried 
away over the hard sand, waving their claws wildly, 
Noel and Mooka would caper alongside, cracking a lit¬ 
tle whip and crying “Hi, hi, Caesar! Hiya, Wolf! Hi, 
hiya, hiya, yeeee ! ” — and then shrieking with laughter 
as the sledge overturned and the crabs took to fighting 
23 
