The twins didn't wait to hear any more. They flew for home, and dashed
down the tunnel and up into the room.
Koolee was gathering all the knives and spoons and fishing-things and
sewing things, and dumping them into a large musk-ox hide which was
spread on the floor.
The musk-ox hide covered the entrance hole. The first thing Koolee knew
something thumped the musk-ox skin on the under side, and the knives
and thimbles and needle cases and other things flew in all directions.
Up through the hole popped the faces of Menie and Monnie!
"Oh, Mother," they shouted. "We're going off on the woman-boats! After
only one more sleep, if it's pleasant! Father said so!"
Koolee laughed. "I know it!" she said. "I was just packing. You can
help me. There's a lot to do to get ready."
The twins were delighted to help. They got together all their own
treasures--the sled, and the fishing rods, the dog harnesses, and
Annadore, and bound them up with walrus thongs. All but Annadore.
Annadore rode in Monnie's hood as usual.
Koolee gathered all her things together again and wrapped them in the
musk-ox hide. She took down the long narwhal tusks that the dog
harnesses were hung on.
These were the tent poles. She and the twins carried all these things
to the beach. The men stayed on the beach and packed the things away in
the boats. The other women brought down their bundles from their
igloos. There was room for everything in the two big boats.
Only the skins were left on the sleeping bench in the hut. When
everything else was ready, Koolee and the twins went up on top of the
igloo.
They pulled the moss and dirt out of the chinks between the stones that
made the roof, and then Koolee pulled up the stones themselves and let
them fall over to one side. This left the roof open to the sky.
"What makes you do that?" Menie asked.
"So the sun and rain can clean house for us," said Koolee.
Everybody else in the village got ready in the same way.
At last Kesshoo came up from the beach and said to Koolee, "Let us have
some meat and a sleep and then we will start. Everything is ready. The
boats are packed and it looks as if the weather would be clear."
Koolee brought out some walrus meat and blubber for supper, though it
might just as well be called breakfast, for there was no night coming,
and the twins ate theirs sitting on the roof of the igloo with their
feet hanging down inside.
Once Menie's feet kicked his father's head. It was an accident, but
Kesshoo reached up and took hold of Menie's foot and pulled him down on
to the sleeping bench and rolled him over among the skins.
"Crawl in there and go to sleep," he said.
Monnie let herself down through the roof by her hands and crept in
beside Menie. Then Kesshoo and Koolee wrapped themselves in the warm
skins and lay down, too.
It took Menie and Monnie some time to go to sleep, for they could look
straight up through the roof at the sky, and the sky was bright and
blue with little white clouds sailing over it. Besides, they were
thinking about the wonderful things that would happen when they should
wake up.