was
distorted with loathing.

"Rotten!" she sputtered. "A year old!"

"Eh--eh," grinned the chief, "always eat 'em so, Chukche." Thoroughly
disheartened, she left the igloo. But on her way back she came upon a
woman skinning a seal. Seeing the thick layer of fat that was taken
from beneath the animal's skin she hastened to trade three cans of
beans for it. Bearing this home in triumph she soon had the fat trying
out over a slow fire.

Seal oil proved to be quite as good cooking oil as lard. Even
doughnuts fried in it were pronounced delicious by the ever-hungry Phi.

Experimenting with native food was interesting. Seal steak was not
bad, and seal liver was as good as calf's liver. Polar bear steak and
walrus stew were impossible. "Wouldn't even make good hamburger," was
Phi's verdict. The boiled flipper of a white-whale was tender as
chicken. But when a hind quarter of reindeer meat found its way into
the village there was feasting indeed.

In a land so little known as this one does not seek long for
opportunities to express strange and unusual things. Marian had not
been established a week with Lucile in their igloo, when an unusual
opportunity presented itself.

Among the supplies brought from the ship was found a well-equipped
medicine-chest. During her long visits in out-of-the-way places,
Marian had learned much of the art of administering simple remedies.
She had not been in the village three days before her fame as a doctor
became known to all the village.

She had learned, with a feeling of great relief, that the bearded
stranger who had posed as a witch-doctor had gone away from the
village. Whether he had gone toward Whaling, or south to some other
village, no one appeared to know. Now that he had departed, it seemed
obvious that she was destined to take his place as the village
practitioner.

It was during one of her morning "clinics," as she playfully called
them, that a native of strange dress brought his little girl to her for
treatment. The ailment seemed but a simple cold. Marian prescribed
cough syrup and quinine, then called for the next patient. Patients
were few that morning. She soon found herself wandering up the single
street of the village. There she encountered the strange native and
his child.

"Who are they?" she asked of a boy who understood English.

"Reindeer Chukches."

"Reindeer Chukches?" she exclaimed excitedly. "Where do they live?"

"Oh, mebby fif