When spring came on, there were other things to do. As the days grew
longer, the ice in the bay cracked and broke into small pieces and
floated away.
The water turned deep blue, and danced in the sunlight, and ice floated
about in it. Often there were walrus on these ice-pans.
The twins sometimes saw their huge black bodies on the white ice, and
heard their hoarse barks. Then all the men in the village would rush
for their kyaks and set out after the walrus.
The men were brave and enjoyed the dangerous sport, but the women used
to watch anxiously until they saw the kyaks coming home towing the
walrus behind them.
Then they would rush down to the shore, help pull the kyaks up on the
beach, where they cut the walrus in pieces and divided it among the
families of the hunters.
When the snow had melted on the Big Rock, hundreds of sea-birds made
their nests there and filled the air with their cries.
Sometimes Kesshoo went egg hunting on the cliff, and sometimes he set
traps there for foxes, and he helped Menie and Koko make a little trap
to catch hares. There was plenty to do in every season of the year.
At last the nights shortened to nothing at all. The long day had begun.
The stone but, which they had found so comfortable in winter, seemed
dark and damp now.
Menie and Monnie remembered the summer days when they did not have to
dive down through a hole to get into their house, so Menie said to
Monnie one day, "Let's go and ask father if it isn't time to put up the
tents."
They ran out to find him. He was down on the beach talking with Koko's
father and the other men of the village.
On the beach were two very long boats. The men were looking them over
carefully to see if they were water tight.
Koko was with the men. When he saw the twins coming, he tore up the
slope to meet them, waving his arms and shouting, "They're getting out
the woman-boats! They're getting out the woman-boats!"
This was glorious news to the twins. They ran down to the beach with
Koko as fast as their legs could carry them.
They got there just in time to hear Koko's father say to Kesshoo, "I
think it's safe to start. The ice is pretty well out of the bay, and
the reindeer will be coming down to the fiords after fresh moss."
All the men listened to hear what Kesshoo would say, and the twins
listened, too, with all their ears.
"If it's clear, I think we could start after one more sleep," said
Kesshoo.