elding
character of the Eskimo, but the girl in crass ignorance was quite
unaware of the difference. To her he was an ardent lover, brave,
fearless, strong, and with worldly goods to provide her with all she
liked and needed.

Poor, simple-hearted, little Eskimo girl! Are your good and kind devas
sleeping that they do not better guard you? Of what can they be
thinking? Call them quickly to advise and help you before it is too
late, and your happiness is forever blasted! Will they not wake in time
to keep you from making this terrible mis-step? Beware of the white man
whose heart is blackness!

But her good devas slept on. The return of the trader was expected, and
as far as lay in their power the Eskimo had made ready for the great and
unusual event soon to be celebrated. The igloo was made tidy, heaps of
firewood were piled beside the door, and from the cache not far distant
were brought quantities of frozen tomcod, seal meat, and salmon berries.
Whale oil for illuminating the interior of the snow-covered igloo was
bought in puffed out seal bladders, tied at each end by stoutly knotted
sinews.

A new fur parkie for the bride made of reindeer skin and decorated with
black and white fur squares for a border, was completed by Eskimo women
sitting crosslegged in a corner of the igloo.

At last the white man arrived. He was accompanied by another who was to
act as the officiating clergyman; the Eskimo girl wished to have
performed the ceremony of his people; but alas! she had not overheard a
conversation which had taken place between the two men.

"Get off some rigmarole of your own, I tell you," laughed the coming
bridegroom, speaking to his companion, "It's no matter what it is, only
don't make me burst out laughing in the middle of it, for Estella might
resent it. She's a bright little one, and that's no josh. Seriously, I
don't want a bona fide marriage ceremony performed, you understand. When
I make my stake and leave Alaska behind forever I don't care to have a
legal wife tagging at my coat-tails. I want to be a free man to go and
come as I please. See?" and the speaker puffed a cloud of tobacco smoke
from between his lips.

"What about the children, Buster? Will there be any?"

"You bet your life! The brats can live as well as those up the country
with that other squaw of mine. But you're a terror for questions, pard.
If you squeal on me I'll send you to thunder," clapping his hand on his
hip pocket where pr