I

Little Ahmow was an Eskimo boy. He lived with his parents on the bleak northern shore of Hudson Bay.

During the long Arctic winter these Eskimos kill the walrus which live at the edge of the ice. In the short summer they hunt them on the islands near the shore.

The walrus meat is cut into strips and sewed up in bags made of the walrus skin. This is to keep the dogs from stealing and eating it.

The walrus oil is put into casks to be used in the dark winter months for heat and light.

Ahmow’s father killed many walrus every summer and stored the meat and oil on the islands. Then in the winter he rode over on the ice to get it.

One cold winter day, when Ahmow was ten years old, his father said, “To-morrow I shall go to the island for oil.”

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“We need meat, too,” said his wife, “and food for the dogs.”

“May I go with you, father?” said Ahmow. “I will help you all I can.”
child, dog and sled and igloo

“No,” answered Nannook. “It is far and you are only a boy.”

Ahmow begged so hard that at last his father said he might go.

“But it will be a long cold ride, and there are often bears and wolves on the island.”

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So Ahmow dressed himself in his new reindeer suit that his mother had made, and pulled his sealskin cap well over his ears.

He helped his father get ready for the long, cold journey. First they put a thick coating of ice on the sledge-runners. Then they filled two sealskin bags with food and water.

They called the dogs and harnessed them to the sledge. There were eight of them, and they could run like the wind.

Last of all Ahmow crawled into the house, bade his mother good-by, and brought out the long whip.

Nannook wrapped his little boy in a bearskin, cracked his whip over the dogs, and away they flew over the ice. Oh, how happy Ahmow was!
II

After a while the dogs stopped running and began to trot, and Ahmow looked about over the vast fields of ice.

Not a tree, not a house, not a person was in sight.decoration109decoration As far as he could see there was nothing but ice and snow. Everything was still and white in the dim light.

When they had nearly reached the island, what did they see but a huge polar bear! He was prowling around the oil casks, looking for something to eat.

Nannook unharnessed the dogs at once. “Go,” he cried, and they raced across the ice after the bear.

The bear was so big and clumsy that he could not run fast. The dogs soon surrounded him, and held him until Nannook came running up to shoot him.

Ahmow helped his father skin the bear and cut up the meat. Then they loaded the sledge with a cask of oil, some walrus meat, the bearskin, and part of the bear meat.

Af............