spring is in their legs, and he
remembered the good firm beaches of Novastoshnah seven thousand miles
away, the games his companions played, the smell of the seaweed, the
seal roar, and the fighting. That very minute he turned north, swimming
steadily, and as he went on he met scores of his mates, all bound for
the same place, and they said: "Greeting, Kotick! This year we are
all holluschickie, and we can dance the Fire-dance in the breakers off
Lukannon and play on the new grass. But where did you get that coat?"

Kotick's fur was almost pure white now, and though he felt very proud of
it, he only said, "Swim quickly! My bones are aching for the land." And
so they all came to the beaches where they had been born, and heard the
old seals, their fathers, fighting in the rolling mist.

That night Kotick danced the Fire-dance with the yearling seals. The sea
is full of fire on summer nights all the way down from Novastoshnah to
Lukannon, and each seal leaves a wake like burning oil behind him and a
flaming flash when he jumps, and the waves break in great phosphorescent
streaks and swirls. Then they went inland to the holluschickie grounds
and rolled up and down in the new wild wheat and told stories of what
they had done while they had been at sea. They talked about the Pacific
as boys would talk about a wood that they had been nutting in, and if
anyone had understood them he could have gone away and made such a chart
of that ocean as never was. The three- and four-year-old holluschickie
romped down from Hutchinson's Hill crying: "Out of the way, youngsters!
The sea is deep and you don't know all that's in it yet. Wait till
you've rounded the Horn. Hi, you yearling, where did you get that white
coat?"

"I didn't get it," said Kotick. "It grew." And just as he was going to
roll the speaker over, a couple of black-haired men with flat red faces
came from behind a sand dune, and Kotick, who had never seen a man
before, coughed and lowered his head. The holluschickie just bundled off
a few yards and sat staring stupidly. The men were no less than Kerick
Booterin, the chief of the seal-hunters on the island, and Patalamon,
his son. They came from the little village not half a mile from the sea
nurseries, and they were deciding what seals they would drive up to the
killing pens--for the seals were driven just like sheep--to be turned
into seal-skin jackets later on.

"Ho!" said Patalamon. "Look! There's a white seal!"

K