't run. Nobody could. The snow was too deep.
They went in every step above their knees. But they ploughed along and
gave their message at each igloo.

Everybody was very glad to come, and Koko said, "I'll come right now
and stay if you want me to."

"Come along," said the twins.

They went back to their own house, kicking the snow to make a path.
Koko went with them. The snow was just the right kind for a snow house.
It packed well and made good blocks.

While the twins were away giving the invitations, Kesshoo carried great
pieces of bear's meat into the house.

Koolee put in the cooking pan all the meat it would hold, and kept the
blaze bright in the lamp underneath to cook it.

Then Kesshoo took his long ivory knife and went out to help the twins
with the snow house, as he had promised.

"See, this is the way," he said to them.

He took an unbroken patch of snow where no one had stepped. He made a
wide sweep of his arm and marked a circle in the snow with his knife.

The circle was just as big as he meant the house to be. Then he cut out
blocks of snow from the space inside the circle. He placed these big
blocks of snow around the circle on the line he had marked with his
knife.

When he got the first row done Menie said, "I can do that! Let me try."

He took the knife and cut out a block. It wasn't nice and even like his
father's blocks.

"That will never do," his father said. "Your house will tumble down
unless your blocks are true."

He made the sides of the block straight by cutting off some of the snow.

"Now all the other blocks in this row must be just like this one," he
said. Koko tried next. His block was almost right the first time. But
then, as I have told you before, Koko was six.

Monnie tried the next one. I am sorry to say hers wouldn't do at all.
It was dreadfully crooked. They took turns. Menie cut a new block while
Koko placed the last one on the snow wall.

Kesshoo had to put on the top blocks to make the roof. Neither Koko nor
Menie could do it right, though they tried and tried. It is a very hard
thing to do. When the blocks were all laid up and the dome finished,
Kesshoo said, "Now, Monnie can help pack it with snow."

Monnie got the snow shovel. The snow shovel was made of three flat
pieces of wood sewed together with leather thongs. It had an edge of
horn sewed on with thongs, too.

Monnie threw loose snow on the snow house and spatted it down with the
back of the shovel