on these trapping expeditions. It was
therefore only during the two or three years preceding the year of
famine, when Jimmy was old enough to care for them, and wished them,
that he had a team.

Abel, on the other hand, after the manner of Eskimos, set his traps
nearer the shore, that he might, so far as possible, make the rounds of
them with dogs.

Abel, therefore, had constant need of dogs, and he now had sixteen fine
big fellows, which so nearly resembled the great wolves of the barrens
that were dogs and wolves to intermingle only the practiced eye could
distinguish the one from the other. These dogs never barked, but howled
with the weird, dismal howl of the wolf. And when they were hungry they
were such dangerous, savage brutes that it was unsafe for a stranger,
unless armed with a cudgel, to wander among them.

With sixteen dogs Abel could muster two ordinary teams of eight dogs
each, or one powerful team of ten or twelve, or even the entire number.

Skipper Ed and Jimmy, when they required the services of dogs, could
always borrow a team from Abel, and to repay this courtesy it was their
custom to join in the autumn and spring seal hunts, and to contribute
the carcasses of the seals they killed to Abel, retaining only the
skins, which Mrs. Abel dressed and made up for them into boots and
winter garments and sleeping bags, as needs demanded.

It was a Saturday evening when Bobby finally received Abel's consent for
him to go to the _sena_ seal hunting. He was preparing to go over, as
was his custom on Saturdays, to spend the evening with Skipper Ed and
Jimmy in reading and study, and when he had eaten his supper he donned
his snowshoes and _netsek_[D] and hurried eagerly away to Skipper Ed's
cabin to invite Jimmy to join him in the adventure.

[Footnote D: An Eskimo garment of seal skin, which is drawn on over the
head like a shirt, and has a hood to protect the head. When this garment
is made of caribou skin it is called a _kulutuk_, and when made of
cloth, an _adikey_.]

"Yes, to be sure, Partner, you must go with Bobby," said Skipper Ed.
"But it's going to be bleak and cold out there. It's a man's work at
this season, hunting at the _sena_, and a strong man's work, too.
Perhaps I had better go along. Then we can take two teams of dogs."

"That will be dandy!" exclaimed Bobby, "We'll have a fine time!"

"Yes, Partner, come!" urged Jimmy. "You can leave your traps for a
week."

"I think I can--yes, I'