was appointed
steerswoman, felt herself quite at home when seated in her place.
Sigokow, being a powerful creature, physically as well as mentally, was
put in charge of the bow-paddle. The other women were ranged along the
sides, each with a paddle except old Kannoa who was allowed to sit in
the bottom of the craft as a passenger, and guardian of Pussi and
Tumbler.

As these last were prone to jump about under violent impulses of joyous
hilarity, and had an irresistible desire to lean over the sides for the
purpose of dipping their hands in the sea, the duty of the old woman,
although connected with children's play, was by no mean's child's play.

Three miles an hour being the average speed at which the boat went, the
walkers easily kept up with it. Only once did a difficulty occur when
they came to a narrow bay which, although not more than a mile or so
across from point to point, ran so far inland that the walkers could not
have gone round it without great loss of time.

"We must be ferried across here," said Egede; "but as it is past noon, I
think we had better call a halt, and dine before making the traverse."

"That is my opinion, too, sir," said Rooney, throwing down the bundle he
had been carrying.

As the invitation to feed seldom comes amiss to a healthy Eskimo,
Egede's proposal was at once agreed to, and in a few minutes they were
all busily engaged.

It was a pretty spot, that on which they dined. Bushes just beginning
to bud surrounded them; brilliant sunshine drew forth delicious scents
from the long, long frozen earth and the reviving herbage on which they
sat. It also drew forth gushing rivulets from the patches of snow and
heavy drifts, which here and there by their depth and solidity seemed to
bid defiance to the sweet influences of spring. The ice-laden sea sent
gentle wavelets to the pebbly shore. A group of large willows formed a
background to their lordly hall, and behind them, in receding and grand
perspective, uprose the great shoulders of Greenland's mountains.

On all those natural objects of interest and beauty, however, the
travellers did not at first bestow more than a passing glance. They
were too much engrossed with "metal more attractive," in the shape of
bear blubber; but when appetite began to fail conversation began to
flow. At that point it occurred to Pussi and Tumbler that they would go
and have some fun.

Child-nature is much the same all the world over and curious