ou call this the Aurora Borealis--hey?"
"Yes," said the priest; "and finer than we often get it. We are not far
enough north for the great displays."
He went in to put on his parki.
Mac, after looking out, had shut the door and stayed behind with
Kaviak.
On Father Will's return Farva, speaking apparently less to the priest
than to the floor, muttered: "Better let him stop where he is till his
cold's better."
The Colonel came in.
"Leave the child here!" ejaculated the priest.
"--till he's better able to travel."
"Why not?" said the Colonel promptly.
"Well, it would be a kindness to keep him a few days. I'll _have_ to
travel fast tonight."
"Then it's settled." Mac bundled Kaviak into the Boy's bunk.
When the others were ready to go out again, Farva caught up his fur
coat and went along with them.
The dogs were not quite ready. The priest was standing a little
absentmindedly, looking up. The pale green streamers were fringed with
the tenderest rose colour, and from the corona uniting them at the
zenith, they shot out across the heavens, with a rapid circular and
lateral motion, paling one moment, flaring up again the next.
"Wonder what makes it," said the Colonel.
"Electricity," Mac snapped out promptly.
The priest smiled.
"One mystery for another."
He turned to the Boy, and they went on together, preceding the others,
a little, on the way down the trail towards the river.
"I think you must come and see us at Holy Cross--eh? Come soon;" and
then, without waiting for an answer: "The Indians think these flitting
lights are the souls of the dead at play. But Yagorsha says that long
ago a great chief lived in the North who was a mighty hunter. It was
always summer up here then, and the big chief chased the big game from
one end of the year to another, from mountain to mountain and from
river to sea. He killed the biggest moose with a blow of his fist, and
caught whales with his crooked thumb for a hook. One long day in summer
he'd had a tremendous chase after a wonderful bird, and he came home
without it, deadbeat and out of temper. He lay down to rest, but the
sunlight never winked, and the unending glare maddened him. He rolled,
and tossed, and roared, as only the Yukon roars when the ice rushes
down to the sea. But he couldn't sleep. Then in an awful fury he got
up, seized the day in his great hands, tore it into little bits, and
tossed them high in the air. So it was dark. And wint
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