ghing.

"They are beginning to respect us," said Wade.

"But would it not have been far better to have come over here and
asked them kindly for what we wanted?" Raed demanded.

"No," said Kit; "for we should not have got it."

"I don't know about that," replied Raed.

"I know we shouldn't," said Wade. "We should have got a square
_na-mick_ to start with; and I am inclined to believe they would have
attacked us with their daggers and harpoons. Then we should have been
obliged to kill a lot of them in self-defence. As it is, we haven't
hurt anybody yet. A dose of spanks won't injure any of them, I'll
warrant."

"But this whole business is revolting,--to me, at least," Raed
continued.

"Oh, I guess you will stand it!" laughed Kit. "But, Raed, if I were
you, I wouldn't show quite so much of my righteous indignation. You
want your supper as well as the rest of us."

"No doubt."

"Well, honestly, old fellow, I could not see any better way to get it
for you."

"Well, I hoped never to eat a supper procured by slave-labor."

"You won't notice any great difference in the taste, I dare say,"
replied Wade.

Donovan was preparing splints from the old thwart, and covering them
with the blubber in the arch. Ten or a dozen of the Esquimaux were
looking on. When he struck a match on his sleeve, exclamations of
wonder broke out. Matches were a novelty with them. From their strange
looks, and glances toward each other, we concluded that they took us
to be either great saints, or devils; most likely the latter, from
the way we had previously deported ourselves. The eggs were fried, and
eaten with a sprinkling of salt. A fire of seal-blubber was probably a
very extravagant luxury in the eyes of our Husky subjects. They had no
fire while we were with them, save their flickering stone lamps. Yet
the use of cooked food seemed not to be wholly unknown among them. On
several occasions we saw them boiling, or at least parboiling, a duck
in a stone kettle over five or six of their lamps set together. They
often gave food cooked in this way to their young children, and in
cases where any of their number are sick. If wood were plenty, they
would doubtless soon come to relish it best; since it is undoubtedly
the scarcity of wood which has driven them to raw food.

Whatever we did,--in our cooking, eating, and in all our
movements,--we were sure of a curious and admiring crowd. There were,
in all, thirty-seven of the Esquimaux on the