at the same moment, the whale came out from the passage
way of its house, and rolled down into the sea. The umiak dashed off,
but it seemed as if it were standing still, so swiftly did the whale
overhaul it. And when the whale had nearly reached them, the brothers
said to their sister:

"Throw out your hairband."

And hardly had she thrown it out when the sea foamed up, and the whale
stopped. Then it went on after them again, and when it came up just
behind the boat, the brothers said: "Throw out one of your mittens."

And she threw it out, and the sea foamed up, and the whale pounced
down on it. And then she threw out the inner lining of one of her
mittens, and then her outer frock and then her inner coat, and now
they were close to land, but the whale was almost upon them. Then
the brothers cried:

"Throw out your breeches!"

And at the same moment the sea was lashed into foam, but the umiak
had reached the land. And the whale tried to follow, but was cast up
on the shore as a white and sun-bleached bone of a whale.

THE TWO LITTLE OUTCASTS

There were two little boys and they had no father and no mother,
and they went out every day hunting ptarmigan, and they had never
any weapons save a bow. And when they had been out hunting ptarmigan,
the men of that place were always very eager to take their catch.

One day they went out hunting ptarmigan as usual, but there were
none. On their way, they came to some wild and difficult cliffs. And
they looked down from that place into a ravine, and saw at the bottom
a thing that looked like a stone. They went down towards it, and
when they came nearer, it was a little house. And they went nearer
still and came right to it. They climbed up on to the roof, and when
they looked down through the air hole in the roof, they saw a little
boy on the floor with a cutting-board for a kayak and a stick for a
paddle. They called down to him, and he looked up, but then they hid
themselves. When they looked down again, he was there as before,
playing at being a man in a kayak. A second time they called to
him, and then he ran to hide. And they went in then, and found him,
sobbing a little, and pressing himself close in against the wall.

And they asked him:

"Do you live here all alone?"

And he answered: "No, my mother went out early this morning, and she
is out now, as usual."

They said:

"We have come to be here with you because you are all alone."

And when