about eight inches square, to
let in light. If truth must be told, it was also somewhat dirty, for,
besides having only one large room in which living, cooking, receiving
company, and sleeping were carried on, the dogs of the family were
permitted to repose there--when they were good! Anything approaching to
badness ensured their summary and violent ejection.

Branching from this family room was a little recess, screened off by
skin curtains, which formed Nootka's private apartment or boudoir. It
was singularly unlike the boudoirs of other lands! Black smoke, instead
of whitewash, coloured the walls and ceiling. No glass hung on the wall
to reflect the visage of the Arctic beauty, but there were several pegs,
from one of which hung Nootka's seal-skin bad-weather jacket, the
tadpole-tail of which reached to the ground, while from another depended
a pair of her long waterproof boots. One half of the floor being raised
about eight inches, constituted the Eskimo maiden's couch--also her
chair and sofa. There was no table, but the skull of a walrus did
service as a stool.

To this apartment Nootka introduced her young Indian friend, leaving her
mother in the outer hall, and the two maidens at once began, as might
have been expected, an earnest and confidential conversation. In their
eagerness they had not reflected that each knew not one word of the
other's language, but of course the first sentences opened their eyes to
the melancholy fact.

They had, indeed, been opened already to some extent, but not so
impressively as now when they longed for a good talk.

"Come here," said Nootka--of course in Eskimo--as she dragged rather
than led her new friend into the boudoir; "I want you to tell me all
about your saving my brother's life."

"I don't understand a word you say," replied Adolay--of course in Dogrib
Indian--with a look of great perplexity in her wide-open eyes.

"Oh! I'm stupid and sorry. I forgot. You don't speak our language."

"What funny sounds! It seems like nonsense," remarked Adolay--more to
herself than to her friend.

"So curious!" soliloquised Nootka; "what one might expect from a seal if
it tried to speak. Say that over again. I like to hear it."

The perplexity on the face of the Indian maid deepened, and she shook
her head, while the look of fun in that of the Eskimo maiden increased,
and she smiled knowingly.

Here at last they had hit on common ground--tapped a universal spring