e I
learned much that was good. Then my mother died, and I came home."

She spoke simply, and Mr. Strong wondered what would be the fate of this
sweet-faced girl.

"Did you learn to sew from the sisters?" asked Ted, who had been looking
at the garments she had made, in which the stitches, though made in skins
and sewn with deer sinew, were as even as though done with a machine.

"Oh, no," she said. "We learn that at home. When I was no larger than
Zaksriner there, my mother taught me to braid thread from deer and whale
sinew, and we must sew very much in winter if we have anything to sell
when summer comes. It is very hard to get enough to live. Since the
Boston men come, our people waste the summer in idleness, so we have
nothing stored for the winter's food. Hundreds die and many sicknesses
come upon us. In the village where my people lived, in each house lay the
dead of what the Boston men called measles, and there were not left
enough living to bury the dead. Only we escaped, and a Black Gown came
from the Mission to help, and he took me and Antisarlook, my brother, to
the school. The rest came here, where we live very well because there
are in the summer, people who buy what we make in the winter."

"How do you get your skins so soft?" asked Ted, feeling the exquisite
texture of a bag she had just finished. It was a beautiful bit of work, a
tobacco-pouch or "Tee-rum-i-ute," made of reindeer skin, decorated with
beads and the soft creamy fur of the ermine in its summer hue.

"We scrape it a very long time and pull and rub," she said. "Plenty of
time for patience in winter."

"Your hands are too small and slim. I shouldn't think you could do much
with those stiff skins," said Teddy.

Alalik smiled at the compliment, and a little flush crept into the clear
olive of her skin. She was clean and neat, and the _eglu_, though close
from being shut up, was neater than most of the Esquimo houses. The bowl
filled with seal oil, which served as fire and light, was unlighted, and
Alalik's father motioned to her and said something in Innuit, to which
she smilingly replied:

"My father wishes you to eat with us," she said, and produced her flint
bag. In this were some wads of fibrous material used for wicks. Rolling a
piece of this in wood ashes, she held it between her thumb and a flint,
struck her steel against the stone, and sparks flew out which lighted the
fibre so that it burst into flame. This was thrown into the b