and with the relaxation he was overcome by emotion. Tears
sprang to his eyes, and suddenly he felt very weak.

"The Lord surely has been taking care of me. Maybe it is my destiny to
live, after all, and if I get out of this I'll never forget 'twas the
Lord took me through."

Bobby's undivided attention until this time had been centered upon the
seals which he had attacked, which were among those farthest from the
open water. Now as he dried his eyes and, still trembling from effort
and excitement, drew his sheath knife to dress the animals, he looked
about him, and what he saw brought forth an exclamation:

"Puppies! That's what all the seals are here for!"

And, sure enough, lying about on the ice were a great number of little
white balls, so small and white they had escaped his notice at a
distance, and each white ball was a new-born seal. That, then, was why
old seals were so numerous and so fearless.

But Bobby had no time to think about this. Hunger was crying to be
satisfied, and now that food was at hand he was hungrier than ever. As
quickly as he could he dressed one of the seals, and as he had no means
of cooking the meat made a satisfactory meal upon the raw flesh and
blubber, after the manner of Eskimos.

This done he looked about him for a suitable place to build a shelter,
and finding a good drift not far away set about his building with
greater care than on the night before, and before noon time had a small
but well-fashioned _igloo_ erected with a tunnel leading to the entrance
that he might better be protected from the wind.

He now skinned and dressed the remaining seals, and spreading the skins
for a bed on his _igloo_ floor felt himself very comfortably situated
under the circumstances.

"Now," said he, surveying his work, "if I only had a lamp and a kettle I
could get on all right till the ice drives ashore or I'm picked up or
the pack goes to pieces and I won't need to get along any more."

But this last thought he quickly put from him with the exclamation:
"That's silly! I won't worry now till I have to. I'll just do my best
for myself, and if the Lord wants me to live He'll show me how to save
myself, or He'll save me."

Then Bobby sat down to think. The pieces of ice which he melted in his
mouth in lieu of water he was convinced had a weakening effect upon him,
and his mouth was becoming tender and sore from sucking them, and he
preferred his meat cooked. He had plenty of matches in hi