The Literary World Seventh Reader Part 21

"Plenty dlink in that box," says he, handling an oil-can.

"Oh, if that's what you want, take it," I told him, and he clapped the nozzle between his lips, and sucked down a gill of [v]cylinder lubricating oil as though it had been water.

"You seem to like it," I said; "have some more."

But that was his fill. He thanked me and asked me to visit his village when I could get away from the ship. And just then some of his friends were caught pilfering, and the whole crew of them were bundled away.

Now I had noted that most of these Esquimaux had bits of bearskins amongst their other furs, and it was that I had in mind when I fell out with Captain Black. Amatikita had pointed out the direction in which his village lay, and it was to that I intended making my way with as little delay as possible. But I kept this to myself, and let no word of it slip out on the _Gleaner_. Indeed, when I was over the bark's rails, I headed off due north across the ice. I climbed and stumbled on in this direction till I was well out of their sight and hearing amongst the hummocks, and then I turned at right angles for the sh.o.r.e.

The cold up yonder in that Arctic night takes away your breath; it seems to take the manhood out of you. You stumble along gasping. By a chance I came on an Esquimaux sealing, and he beat and thumped me into wakefulness. Then he packed me on to his dog-sleigh, and took my own bit of a sled behind, and set his fourteen-foot whip cracking, and off we set.

Well, you have to be pretty far gone if you can stay asleep with an [v]Innuit's dog-sledge jolting and jumping beneath you, and I was well awakened, especially as the Esquimaux sat on top of me. And so in time we brought up at the huts, and a good job, too. I'd been tramping in the wrong direction, so it turned out, and, besides, if I had come to the village, I might well have walked over the top of it, as it was drifted up level with snow. There was a bit of a rabbit-hole giving entrance to each hut, with some three fathoms of tunnel underground, and skin curtains to keep out the draught, but once inside you might think yourself in a [v]stoke-hold again. There was the same smell of oil, and almost the same warmth. I tell you, it was fine after that slicing cold outside.

It was Amatikita's house I was brought to, and he was very hospitable.

They took off my outer clothes and put them on the rack above the soapstone lamp to dry, and waited on me most kindly. Indeed, they recognized me as a superior at once, and kept on doing it. They put tender young seal-meat in the dish above the lamp, and when it was cooked I ate my part of the stew, and then got up and took the best place on the raised sleeping-bench at the farther side of the hut. I cut a fill for my pipe, lit up and pa.s.sed the plug, and presently we were all smoking, happy as you please.

Amatikita spoke up like a man. "Very pleased to see you, Cappie. What you come for? What you want?"

"You're a man of business," I said. "You waste no time. I like that.

What I want is bearskins. The jackets of big, white, baggy-trousered polar bears, you know; and I brought along a couple of tip-top rifles for you to get them with. Now, I make you a fair offer. Get me all the bears in the North Polar regions, and you shall have my Henrys and all the cartridges that are left over. And as for the meat, you shall have that as your own share of the game."

"You want shoot those bears yourself?"

"Not if I can help it. I'm an engineer, and a good one at that. But as a sportsman I've had but little experience, and don't seem drawn toward learning. It is too draughty up here, just at present, for my taste.

I'll stay and keep house, and maybe do a bit of repairing and inventing among the furniture. I've brought along a hand-vice and a bag of tools with me, and if you can supply drift-wood and some sc.r.a.p-iron, I'll make this turf-house of yours a real cottage."

The deal was made. I worked away with my tools, and whenever those powdering winter gales eased for a little, Amatikita and his friends would go off with the howling dog-sledges and the Henrys, and it was rare that they'd come back without one bear, and often they'd bring two or even three. These white bears sleep through the black winter months in hollows in the cliffs, and the Esquimaux know their lairs, though it's rare enough they dare tackle them. Small blame, too, you'd say, if you saw the flimsy bone-tipped lances and harpoons, which are all they are armed with.

With a good, smashing, heavy-bore Henry rifle it is a different thing.

The Esquimaux were no cowards. They would walk up within a yard of a bear, when the dogs had ringed it, and blow half its head away with a single shot. And then they would draw the carca.s.s up to the huts with the dog trains, and the women would skin and dress the meat, and Amatikita and the others would gorge themselves.

At last the long winter wore away. Amatikita dived in through the entrance of the hut one day and told me that the ice-floe was beginning to break. The news affected me like the blow of a whip. I went out into the open and found the sun up. The men were overhauling their skin canoes. The snow was wet underfoot and seafowl were swooping around. The floe was still sound where it joined the sh.o.r.e, but two seaward lanes of blue water showed between the ice, and in one of them a whale was spouting pale gray mist.

It was high time for me to be off. So the bearskins were fastened by thongs to the sledges and word was shouted to the dog leader of each team. The dogs started, and presently away went the teams full tilt, the sledges leaping and crashing in their wake, with the drivers and a certain Scotch engineer who was unused to such [v]acrobatics clinging on top of the packs. My! but yon was a wild ride over the rotten, cracking, sodden floe, under the fresh, bright sunshine of that Arctic spring morn!

Presently round the flank of a small ice-berg we came in view of the _Gleaner_. She was still beset in the ice; but the hands were hard at work beating the ice from the rigging and cutting a gutter around her in the floe, so that she might float when the time came. They knocked off work when we drove up.

"Good-day, Captain Black," I said. "I've been troubling myself over bearskins, and I'll ask you for seven shillings head money on twenty-nine."

"You've shot twenty-nine bears? You're lying to me."

"The skins are there, and you can count them for yourself."

His color changed when the Esquimaux pa.s.sed the skins over the side. And I clambered aboard the ship along with them.

W. CUTCLIFFE HYNE.

=HELPS TO STUDY=

Tell this story briefly, using your own words. What mistake did McTodd make in preparing for the hunt? What amused you most? How did McTodd show his shrewdness, even if he was not a good hunter?

What do you learn about the Arctic region?

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

The Frozen Pirate--W. Clark Russell.

The Casting Away of Mrs. Leeks and Mrs. Aleshine--Frank R. Stockton.

LOCHINVAR

Oh, young Lochinvar is come out of the west:-- Through all the wide Border his steed was the best, And save his good broadsword he weapons had none; He rode all unarmed, and he rode all alone.

So faithful in love, and so dauntless in war, There never was knight like the young Lochinvar.

He stayed not for [v]brake, and he stopped not for stone, He swam the Esk river where ford there was none; But ere he alighted at Netherby gate The bride had consented, the gallant came late: For a laggard in love, and a dastard in war Was to wed the fair Ellen of brave Lochinvar.

So boldly he entered the Netherby Hall, Among bride's-men and kinsmen and brothers and all: Then spoke the bride's father, his hand on his sword (For the poor craven bridegroom said never a word), "Oh, come ye in peace here, or come ye in war, Or to dance at our bridal, young Lord Lochinvar?"

"I long wooed your daughter, my suit you denied;-- Love swells like the Solway, but ebbs like its tide-- And now am I come with this lost love of mine, To lead but one measure, drink one cup of wine.

There are maidens in Scotland more lovely by far, That would gladly be bride to the young Lochinvar."

The bride kissed the goblet; the knight took it up, He quaffed of the wine, and he threw down the cup.

She looked down to blush, and she looked up to sigh, With a smile on her lips and a tear in her eye.

He took her soft hand, ere her mother could bar,-- "Now tread we a measure!" said young Lochinvar.

So stately his form, and so lovely her face, That never a hall such a [v]galliard did grace; While her mother did fret, and her father did fume, And the bridegroom stood dangling his bonnet and plume, And the bride-maidens whispered, "'Twere better by far To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."

One touch to her hand, and one word in her ear, When they reached the hall door, and the charger stood near; So light to the [v]croup the fair lady he swung, So light to the saddle before her he sprung!

"She is won! we are gone, over bank, bush, and [v]scar; They'll have fleet steeds that follow," quoth young Lochinvar.

There was mounting 'mong Graemes of the Netherby clan; Fosters, Fenwicks, and Musgraves, they rode and they ran; There was racing and chasing on Cann.o.bie lea, But the lost bride of Netherby ne'er did they see.

So daring in love, and so dauntless in war; Have ye e'er heard of gallant like young Lochinvar?

SIR WALTER SCOTT.

=HELPS TO STUDY=

Read the poem through and tell the story briefly. Where is the scene laid? _Border_ here means the part of Scotland bordering on England. Who is the hero? Give your opinion of him. Find the expressions used by the poet to inspire admiration for Lochinvar.

Give your opinion of the bridegroom. Quote lines that express the poet's opinion of him. What word is used instead of _thicket_ in the second stanza? a _loiterer_? a _coward_? Why do you suppose the bride had consented? Why did her father put his hand on his sword?

What reason did Lochinvar give for coming to the feast? Why did he act as if he did not care? Was the bride willing to marry "the laggard in love"? How do you know? Describe the scene as the two danced. What do you suppose was the "one word in her ear"?

Read aloud the lines describing Lochinvar's ride to Netherby Hall.

Read those describing the ride from the hall. Notice the galloping movement of the verse.