sent him into the
water, but Kesshoo caught him and pulled him to safety.
A great shout of joy went up from the shore, and Menie was glad enough
to shout too when he felt solid ice under his feet once more!
While he helped his father pull in the little seal, all the people came
running out on to the ice to meet them, but Kesshoo sent back every one
except Koko's father. He was afraid the ice might break again with so
many people on it. Koko's father helped pull the big seal out of the
water and over the ice to the beach.
Menie dragged his own little seal after him by the harpoon line, and
when he came near the beach, the people all cried out, "See the great
hunter with his game!" And Koolee was so glad to see Menie and so proud
of her boy that she nearly burst with joy!
"I knew the charm would work," she cried. "Not only does he spy
bears--he kills seals! And he only five years old!"
She put her arms around him and pressed her flat nose to his. That's
the Eskimo way of kissing.
Menie tried to look as if he killed seals and got carried away on an
ice pan every day in the week, but inside he felt very proud, too.
When Kesshoo and Koko's father came up with the big seal, Koolee and
the other women dragged it to the village, where it was skinned and cut
up. Every one had a piece of raw blubber to eat at once, and the very
first piece went to Menie.
While they were eating it, Koko came back. He had gone so far up the
shore hunting little auks that he hadn't seen a thing that had
happened. And he hadn't killed any little auks either.
Koko felt that things were very unequally divided in this world. He
wanted to kill a seal and get lost on a raft and be a hero too.
But Koolee gave him a large piece of blubber, and that made him feel
much more cheerful again. He just said to Monnie, "If I had been with
Menie, this never would have happened! I should not have let him get so
near the edge of the ice! But then, you know, I am six, and he is only
five, so, of course, he didn't know any better."
Everybody in the village had seal meat that night, and the Angakok had
the head, which they all thought was the best part. He said he didn't
feel very well, and his Tornak had told him nothing would cure him so
quickly as a seal's head. So Koolee gave it to him.
The skin of the little white seal Koolee saved and dressed very
carefully. She chewed it, all over, on the wrong side, and sucked out
all the blubber, and m
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