dian hood, with
the fat baby sprawling and laughing on her shoulder. That baby never
cried. It seemed as though it had resolved to substitute laughing in
its stead. Once only had Edith seen tears in its little black eyes, and
that was when she had given it a spoonful of soup so hot that its mouth
was scalded by it.

Several of the sledges had already left the island, and were flying at
full speed over the frozen sea, deviating ever and anon from the
straight line in order to avoid a hummock of ice or a gap of open water
caused by the separation of masses at the falling of the tide, while the
men shouted, and the dogs yelled as they observed the flourish of the
cruelly long and heavy lash.

"Shall I get in?" said Edith to Annatock, with an inquiring look, as she
approached the place where the sledge was standing.

The Esquimau nodded his shaggy head, and showed a row of remarkably
white teeth environed by a thick black beard and moustache, by way of
reply to the look of the child.

With a laughing nod to Kaga, who stood watching them, Edith stepped in
and seated herself on a deerskin robe; Annatock and Peetoot sat down
beside her; the enormous whip gave a crack like a pistol-shot, and the
team of fifteen dogs, uttering a loud cry, bounded away over the sea.

The sledge on which Edith was seated was formed very much in the same
manner as the little sled which had been made for her at Fort Chimo. It
was very much larger, how ever, and could have easily held eight or ten
persons. The runners, which were shod with frozen mud (a substance that
was now becoming nearly unfit for use owing to the warm weather), were a
perfect wonder of ingenuity--as, indeed, was the whole machine--being
pieced and lashed together with lines of raw hide in the most
complicated manner and very neatly. The dogs were each fastened by a
separate line to the sledge, the best dog being placed in the centre and
having the longest line, while the others were attached by lines
proportionably shorter according to the distance of each from the
leading dog, and the outsiders being close to the runners of the sledge.
All the lines were attached to the front bar of the machine. There
were many advantages attending this mode of harnessing, among which were
the readiness with which any dog could be attached or detached without
affecting the others, and the ease with which Annatock, when so
inclined, could lay hold of the line of a refractory dog, hau