o was never more than half drunk after the first night, watched
me closely and hung on for the better part of the week. But before ten
days were gone, even the woman Ipsukuk exhausted her provisions, and went
home weak and tottery.

"But Moosu complained. 'O master,' he said, 'we have laid by great
wealth in molasses and sugar and flour, but our shack is yet mean, our
clothes thin, and our sleeping furs mangy. There is a call of the belly
for meat the stench of which offends not the stars, and for tea such as
Tummasook guzzles, and there is a great yearning for the tobacco of
Neewak, who is shaman and who plans to destroy us. I have flour until I
am sick, and sugar and molasses without stint, yet is the heart of Moosu
sore and his bed empty.'

"'Peace!' I answered, 'thou art weak of understanding and a fool. Walk
softly and wait, and we will grasp it all. But grasp now, and we grasp
little, and in the end it will be nothing. Thou art a child in the way
of the white man's wisdom. Hold thy tongue and watch, and I will show
you the way my brothers do overseas, and, so doing, gather to themselves
the riches of the earth. It is what is called "business," and what dost
thou know about business?'

"But the next day he came in breathless. 'O master, a strange thing
happeneth in the igloo of Neewak, the shaman; wherefore we are lost, and
we have neither worn the warm furs nor tasted the good tobacco, what of
your madness for the molasses and flour. Go thou and witness whilst I
watch by the brew.'

"So I went to the igloo of Neewak. And behold, he had made his own
still, fashioned cunningly after mine. And as he beheld me he could ill
conceal his triumph. For he was a man of parts, and his sleep with the
gods when in my igloo had not been sound.

"But I was not disturbed, for I knew what I knew, and when I returned to
my own igloo, I descanted to Moosu, and said: 'Happily the property right
obtains amongst this people, who otherwise have been blessed with but few
of the institutions of men. And because of this respect for property
shall you and I wax fat, and, further, we shall introduce amongst them
new institutions that other peoples have worked out through great travail
and suffering.'

"But Moosu understood dimly, till the shaman came forth, with eyes
flashing and a threatening note in his voice, and demanded to trade with
me. 'For look you,' he cried, 'there be of flour and molasses none in
all the vil