"Here we are," they answered. Their teeth were chattering with cold and
fright, and they ran up the slope and flung themselves into their
mother's arms.
"Oh, Mother, what is the matter with the sky?" they gasped.
Then Koolee looked up too. The long streamers were still flinging
themselves up toward the red dome overhead.
We call this the "aurora," or "northern lights," and know that
electricity causes it, but the twins' mother couldn't know that. She
told them just what had been told her when she was a little girl.
She said, "That is the dance of the Spirits of the Dead! Haven't you
ever seen it before?"
"Not like this," said the twins. "This is so big, and so red!"
"The sky is not often so bright," said Koolee. "Some say it is the
spirits of little children dancing and playing together in the sky!
They will not hurt you. You need not be afraid. See how they dance in a
ring all around the Edge of the World! They look as if they were having
fun."
"It goes around the Edge of the World just like the flames around our
lamp," said Menie. "Maybe it's the Giants' lamp!"
Menie and Monnie believed in Giants. So did their mother. They thought
the Giants lived in the middle of the Great White World, where the snow
never melts.
The thought of the Giants scared them all. The twins gave the fish to
their mother, and then they all three scuttled up the snowy slope
toward the bright window of their igloo just as fast as they could go.
When they got inside they found some hot bear's meat waiting for them,
and Monnie had both the eyes from her fish to eat. But she gave one to
Menie.
When they were warmed and fed, they pulled off their little fur suits,
crawled into the piles of warm skins on the sleeping bench, and in two
minutes were sound asleep.