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and the wall. They made a sumptuous breakfast of tea, the last of the bacon the Boy had brought, and slapjacks. The Boy kept looking from time to time at the display of furs. Father Wills was right; he ought to buy a parki with a hood, but he had meant to have the priest's advice, or Mac's, at least, before investing. Ol' Chief watching him surreptitiously, and seeing he was no nearer making an offer, felt he should have some encouragement. He picked up the seal-skin mittens and held them out. "Present," said Ol' Chief. "You tell Father Brachet us belly solly." "Oh, I'll handle him without gloves," said the Boy, giving back the mittens. But Ol' Chief wouldn't take them. He was holding up the smaller of the two parkis. "You no like?" "Oh, very nice." "You no buy?" "You go sleep on trail," said Nicholas, rising briskly. "You die, no parki." The Boy laughed and shook his head, but still Ol' Chief held out the deer-skin shirt, and caressed the wolf-fringe of the hood. "Him cheap." "How cheap?" "Twenty-fi' dollah." "Don't know as I call that cheap." "Yes," said Nicholas. "St. Michael, him fifty dollah." The Boy looked doubtful. "I saw a parki there at the A. C. Store about like this for twenty." "A. C. parki, peeluck," Nicholas said contemptuously. Then patting the one his father held out, "You wear _him_ fifty winter." "Lord forbid! Anyhow, I've only got about twenty dollars' worth of tobacco and stuff along with me." "Me come white camp," Nicholas volunteered. "Me get more fi' dollah." "Oh, will you? Now, that's very kind of you." But Nicholas, impervious to irony, held out the parki. The Boy laughed, and took it. Nicholas stooped, picked up the fur mittens, and, laying them on the Boy's arm, reiterated his father's "Present!" and then departed to the Kachime to bring down the Boy's pack. The Princess meanwhile had withdrawn to her own special corner, where in the daytime appeared only a roll of plaited mats, and a little, cheap, old hat-box, which she evidently prized most of all she had in the world. "You see? Lock!" The Boy expressed surprise and admiration. "No! Really! I call that fine." "I got present for Father Brachet"; and turning over the rags and nondescript rubbish of the hat-box, she produced an object whose use was not immediately manifest. A section of walrus ivory about six inches long had been cut in two. One of these curved halves had been moun
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