I return."

"Very well, Frank," said Edith; "but don't be long. Come back before
dark; Chimo and I will weary for you."

In a few minutes Frank disappeared among the rocks upon the shore; and
Maximus, taking Edith by the hand, and dragging her sledge after him,
led her a couple of hundred yards out on to the ice, or, more properly
speaking, the hard beaten snow with which the ice was covered. Chimo
had been turned loose, and, being rather tired after his journey, had
coiled himself up on a mound of snow and fallen fast asleep.

"Dis place for house," said Maximus, pausing near a smooth, level part
of the lake. "You stop look to me," he added, turning to the little
girl, who gazed up in his large face with an expression half of wonder
and half of fun. "When you cold, run; when you hot, sit in sled and
look at me."

In compliance with this request, Edith sat down in her sledge, and from
this comfortable point of view watched the Esquimau while he built a
snow-hut before her.

First of all, he drew out a long iron knife, which had been constructed
specially far him by Bryan, who looked upon the giant with special
favour. With the point of this he drew a circle of about seven feet in
diameter; and so well accustomed was he to this operation that his
circle, we believe, could not have been mended even by a pair of
compasses. Two feet to one side of this circle he drew a smaller one,
of about four feet in diameter. Next, he cut out of the snow a number
of hard blocks, which were so tough that they could not be broken
without a severe blow, but were as easily cut as you might have sliced a
soft cheese with a sharp knife. These blocks he arranged round the
large circle, and built them above each other, fashioning them, as he
proceeded, in such a manner that they gradually rose into the form of a
dome. The chinks between them he filled compactly with soft snow, and
the last block, introduced into the top of the structure, was formed
exactly on the principle of the key-stone of an arch. When the large
dome was finished, he commenced the smaller; and in the course of two
hours both the houses--or, as the Esquimaux call them, igloos--were
completed.

Long before this, however, Frank had returned, from an unsuccessful
hunt, to assist him; and Edith had wondered and wearied, grown cold and
taken to running with Chimo, and grown warm and returned to her sledge,
several times. Two holes were left in the igloos to serv