ey has the chance just like a band o' wolves," warned
Toby.

"They don't look so terrible, though they do look sneaky, as you told
me the other day they are," said Charley.

"Aye, sneaky, and as I tells you, 'tis never safe to go abroad among un
unless you has a stick in your hand, and if they comes close strike at
un. They're wonderful afraid of a stick. When they gets used to you,
just kick at un, and 'twill keep un off, and then you won't be needin' a
stick."

"I'll look out for them," Charley promised.

"Tinker's the leader in harness," said Toby. "He were always quick to
learn, and I trains he whilst he were a pup when I plays with he before
he's big enough to drive with the other dogs. Sampson's the boss, and
out of harness he has his will of un. He's a bad fighter."

"He's an ugly looking brute," observed Charley.

"With the dogs about you'll be wantin' to learn to use the whip,"
suggested Toby. "They fears un worse than a stick. 'Tis fine sport to
learn to crack un, and you'll soon learn to do that, whatever."

Toby brought forth the dog whip. It was a cruel looking instrument, with
a lash of braided walrus hide, thirty-five feet in length, and a heavy
wooden handle about eighteen inches long. Toby was quite expert in its
use. He could snap it with a report like a pistol shot, and at
twenty-five or thirty feet distance he could, with the tip of the whip,
strike a chip that was no bigger than a half dollar. When he had given
an exhibition of his skill, he passed the whip to Charley.

"Now you try to snap un," said he.

It was great fun learning to handle the long whip, and though in his
first awkward attempts Charley sometimes wound the lash around his own
neck, where it left a red, smarting ring, with much practice he learned,
in the course of two or three days, to snap it fairly well and without
danger to himself.

During the days that followed Toby and Charley used the dogs and sledge,
or komatik, as Toby called it, to haul wood that Toby had cut in the
near-by forest. During this time Charley was gradually becoming familiar
with the dogs, and sometimes Toby would permit him to guide the komatik,
though he himself was always present to exact obedience from the team.

The wood hauling was done in the afternoon, while the mornings were
devoted to a visit to the rabbit snares and several marten traps, which
Toby had set in the woods, and to the two fox traps on the marsh. Five
fine martens had been c