the most
of his countrymen and women surrounding Red Rooney, who, having finished
breakfast, was seated on a sledge conversing with Angut and Simek, and
others of the chief men of the tribe. All the rest were gazing and
listening with greedy eyes and ears.

"Hi! Okiok," exclaimed the sailor heartily, as he rose and held out his
hand, which his former host shook heartily, to the great surprise and
delight of the crowd; "have you joined the gluttons, that you take so
long to your morning feed? or have you slept longer than usual, to make
you a better match for the young men?"

"No; I was in dreamland," answered the Eskimo, with profound gravity,
which his countrymen knew quite well was pretended; "and I met a torngak
there, who told me that the Kablunet needed much sleep as well as food,
and must not be roused by me, although other fools might disturb him."

"How kind of the torngak!" returned Rooney. "But he was not polite, for
if he spoke to you of `other' fools, he must have thought of you as
_one_ fool. Was he your own torngak?"

"No; I have no torngak. He was my grandmother's. And he told me that
the Kablunet was a great angekok, and would have a torngak of his own
soon. Moreover, he said the games must begin at once--so come along,
Ippegoo."

As he spoke, Okiok caught the slender youth in his powerful arms, laid
him gently on his back, flung some snow in his face, and then ran away.

Ippegoo, entering at once into the spirit of the fun, arose and gave
chase. Excelling in speed as much as his opponent did in strength, the
youth soon overtook him, managed to trip him up, and fell on the top of
him. He was wildly cheered by the delighted crowd, and tried to punish
Okiok; but his efforts were not very successful, for that worthy put
both his mittened hands over his head, and, curling himself up like a
hedgehog, lay invulnerable on the ice. Poor Ippegoo had not strength
either to uncoil, or lift, or even move his foe, and failed to find a
crevice in his hairy dress into which he might stuff snow.

After a few minutes Okiok straightened himself out, jumped up, and
scurried off again over the ice, in the direction of the berg of the
green cave, followed by the entire village.

It was on a level field of ice close to the berg referred to that the
game of kick-ball was to be played. As Rooney was not yet strong enough
to engage in rough play, a pile of deerskins was placed on a point of
the berg, slightly