in boots
again took the place of buckskin moccasins.

Toby and Charley, with dogs and komatik, hauled wood that Toby had cut
in the fall, and more wood that Skipper Zeb felled each day, in
preparation for another winter.

"Before we knows un the summer'll be gone and the fishin' over, and
Dad'll be settin' up his traps again, and the winter'll come, and I'll
not be havin' you, Charley," said Toby sadly.

When there was enough wood cut and hauled to the cabin, and the warm
days of June came with their threat of a final break-up of the ice in
the bay, Long Tom Ham appeared to take the dogs to Lucky Bight for the
summer.

A lump came in Charley's throat when he saw Long Tom Ham drive the dogs
away. The going of the dogs marked the end of winter, and the time close
at hand when they should close the little cabin at Double Up Cove, where
he had spent so many happy months, and depart for Pinch-In Tickle, to
await the coming of the mail boat.

But with every wave of regret there followed the happy thought that he
would soon be with his father and his mother again, and the thought
always sent a tingle of joy up and down his spine. What a meeting that
would be! What a welcome he should receive! What tales he would have to
tell! How proud his father would be of him! How his mother would hover
over him and love him! As much as he regretted leaving his good friends,
these thoughts made the time that he must wait for his going seem all
too long.

Near the end of June came a deluge of rain. Miniature rivers poured down
the hillsides into the bay, and the world became a sea of slush. When
the rain ceased and the sky cleared, the sun shone warm and mellow, and
the ice, now broken into pans, began to move out with the tide.

Seals were now basking in the sunshine upon the loosened ice and upon
the shore, and for two weeks Skipper Zeb and the boys devoted their time
to hunting them. The skins were needed for boots, the flesh for dog
food, and the blubber for oil. Sometimes they would themselves eat seal
meat, and though the Twigs were fond of it, and Charley had pronounced
the meat excellent when he and Toby were starving on Swile Island, he
now thought it strong and not as palatable as he would like.

On the last day of June Skipper Zeb's trap boat, calked and made tight,
was launched, and Skipper Zeb announced:

"Well, now! Here we are clear of ice, and I'm thinkin' there'll soon be
signs of fish down at the tickle. To-morro