Zachariah and Mrs. Abel
he was a dutiful, affectionate son. They, too, were proud of him, and
looked upon him as the finest lad in the whole land, and Abel boasted
that when he grew to be a man he would be the finest hunter on the
coast.

It happened that early in February following Bobby's fifteenth birthday
Abel wrenched an ankle so badly that he could not go about his duties,
or even hobble outside the cabin door. The responsibility of providing
for the little household, therefore, fell upon Bobby. And Bobby, though
keenly sympathetic, was nevertheless glad of an opportunity to show his
prowess.

He squared his shoulders, and regardless of cold and storm set about the
work, determined to prove that he was a man in the things he could
accomplish, if not in years; and he succeeded so well that he won high
praise from Abel. Certainly Abel himself could not have done better with
the fox trapping, which at this season was the chief employment. Bobby
kept the house, too, so well supplied with rabbits and ptarmigans,
through his incessant hunting, that presently there were enough hanging
frozen in the porch to last till the coming of warm weather.

One evening near the end of February Bobby announced, as he entered the
cabin after giving the dogs their daily feed:

"There's only enough seal meat left to last the dogs a week. I'll have
to go to the _sena_ and kill some more."

"You do not know how to do that kind of hunting," objected Abel. "It is
not like hunting seals from a boat, or like spearing them through their
breathing holes in the ice. Feed the dogs only once every two days, and
perhaps before the meat is gone my foot will be strong enough for me to
go to the _sena_."

"I was there with you last year," Bobby insisted. "Jimmy will go with
me. He has been to the _sena_ with you twice, and he knows how. We will
be careful."

And at last Abel surrendered, for he could not long deny Bobby any
reasonable thing that the lad set his heart upon, and after all Bobby
had proved himself a good and careful hunter; and they needed seals.

Skipper Ed had not kept dogs since the slaughter of his team in the year
of famine. He hunted and trapped more after the manner of the Indian
than the Eskimo, going long journeys inland on snowshoes, and now Jimmy
accompanied him. And living quite alone, as he had during his earlier
years on the coast, there was no one who could have fed or cared for
dogs when Skipper Ed was absent up