hey had pitched their tent farther down the beach than the lowest
Eskimo hut, and had in this case put up the great mosquito tent, which
stood eight feet high and had windows like a house. Into this, late
that night, they now crawled, one after another, through the sleeve of
the tent.

"My!" exclaimed Jesse, "I never saw such mosquitoes in my life as
these little black fellows! There are simply clouds of them all along
the beach here, and they follow you wherever you go."

They all stood up inside the tent before preparing for bed in their
blanket rolls.

"Take your socks, fellows," said Rob. "We'll have to kill every one in
the tent, or they won't let us sleep to-night. Jesse's right; these
little fellows bite worse than anything I've seen yet. I vow, when I
came into the tent they almost scared me when they lit on my head and
neck!"

"That trader and his wife didn't seem to mind them so much," said
John, scratching his own neck rather seriously. "She's a white woman,
too--Norwegian, I think some one told me--at least she speaks somewhat
broken. She's a nice woman, too, and I don't see how she stands it up
in this country."

"Her husband told me this is their third winter in the North,"
answered Rob. "They say it takes two or three years to get used to
these things, and then you sort of quiet down and get resigned."

"Or else you die!" grumbled John. "We don't know how many people there
are that don't get resigned."

"How long is the boat going to be here yet, Rob?" queried Jesse,
sitting up on his bed and unlacing his moccasins.

"Until the jamboree is ended and all the fur is bought from the
Huskies," replied Rob, seriously. "Maybe two or three days yet--I
don't know. There'll be plenty of time for us to look around a bit
to-morrow, and even later. Meantime, Uncle Dick has got to get the
supplies ready for our canoe. We're a long ways from home yet. We're
not going back when the steamer goes, young chaps; you'd better
remember that!"

"Huh! Who cares?" said Jesse, contemptuously, pulling his blanket over
his head. "I'm not afraid. We'll get through somehow."

As Rob had said, they had ample time the next day to look about them
in this strange and interesting environment into which they had now
come. The unloading of the boat went on steadily, the slow stream of
breeds, stooping under their heavy loads, passing up the steep bluff
from the boat landing to the trading-post. The boys had time to prowl
along