s ago, they say
"five sleeps" ago.
The night after the bear was killed it began to snow. The wind howled
around the igloo and piled the snow over it in huge drifts.
The dogs were buried under it and had to be dug out, all but Nip and
Tup. They stayed inside with the twins and slept in their bed.
The twins and their father and mother were glad to stay in the warm hut.
At last the snow stopped, the air cleared, and the twins and Kesshoo
went out. Koolee stayed in the igloo.
She sat on her sleeping bench upon a pile of soft furs. A bear's skin
was stretched up on the wall behind her. She had a cozy nest to work in.
The lamp stood on the bench beside her. She was making a beautiful new
suit for Menie. It was made of fawn-skin as soft as velvet, and the
hood and sleeves were trimmed with white rabbit's fur.
Her thimble was made of ivory, and her needle too. Her thread was a
fine strip of hide. There was a bunch of such thread beside her.
Soon Kesshoo came in, bringing with him a dried fish and a piece of
bear's meat, from the storehouse.
Koolee looked up from her sewing. "Isn't it five sleeps since you
killed the bear?" she said.
Kesshoo counted on his fingers. "Yes," he said, "it is five sleeps."
"Then it is time to eat the bear's head," said Koolee. "His spirit is
now with our fathers."
"Why not have a feast?" said Kesshoo. "There hasn't been any fresh meat
in the village since the bear was killed, and I don't believe the rest
have had anything to eat but dried fish. We have plenty of bear's meat
still."
Koolee hopped down off the bench and put some more moss into the lamp.
"You bring in the meat," she said, "and tell the twins to go to all the
igloos and invite the people to come at sunset."
"All right," Kesshoo answered, and he went out at once to the
storehouse to get the meat.
II.
When he came out of the tunnel, Kesshoo found the twins trying to make
a snow house for the dogs. They weren't getting on very well.
Kesshoo could make wonderful snow houses. He had made a beautiful one
when the first heavy snows of winter had come, and the family had lived
in it while Koolee finished building the stone igloo. The twins had
watched him make it. It seemed so easy they were sure they could do it
too. Kesshoo said, "If you will run to all the igloos and tell the
people to come at sunset to eat the bear's head, I will help you build
the snow house for the dogs."
Menie and Monnie couldn
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