After a while the dogs stopped running and began to trot, and Ahmow
looked about over the vast fields of ice.
Not a tree, not a house, not a person was in sight. As far as he could
see there was nothing but ice and snow. Everything was still and white
in the dim light.
When they had nearly reached the island, what did they see but a huge
polar bear! He was prowling around the oil casks, looking for something
to eat.
Nannook unharnessed the dogs at once. “Go,” he cried, and they raced
across the ice after the bear.
The bear was so big and clumsy that he could not run fast. The dogs
soon surrounded him, and held him until Nannook came running up to
shoot him.
Ahmow helped his father skin the bear and cut up the meat. Then they
loaded the sledge with a cask of oil, some walrus meat, the bearskin,
and part of the bear meat.
After eating their luncheon, Ahmow was again rolled up in the bear rug,
and they started for home. Nannook walked beside the sledge. The dogs
walked too, because the load was so heavy.
When they were nearly halfway home, Nannook saw some reindeer.
“Watch the dogs, Ahmow,” he said, “and I will try to shoot one of
those reindeer. Then we can have a fine dinner.”
So he took the gun and ran swiftly over the snow. Soon he was out of
sight, and Ahmow was alone with the dogs.
The little boy played with the dogs at first, but after a while they
curled up and went to sleep.
Ahmow was sleepy, too, and it was so warm in the bear rug that he
almost went to sleep.
All at once he heard a growl, then a dog barked. Ahmow was wide awake
and listening. “What is it, Naka?” he said to the dog that barked.
Naka barked again, and the hair stood up straight on his back.
Ahmow stood up and looked about. There was a fierce, hungry-looking
wolf coming toward him! He looked again! One, two, three, four wolves
were leaping over the snow!
The boy threw off the rug, and seized his father’s whip and walrus
spear. “Come here,” he called to the dogs. “Come here to the sledge.”
Then, as the wolves came nearer, he jumped into the cask of meat.
[Illustration]
One big wolf ran up to the sledge. Ahmow leaned over and struck him
with the whip with all his might. The wolf howled and turned back.
Another wolf would have killed one of the dogs, but Ahmow threw out a
big piece of bear meat. The wolf seized the meat and began to eat it.
Now a third wolf came up to the sledge. Just then Ahmow saw his father
running toward him.
“He will drive the wolves away,” he thought, “but I should like to kill
one if I can.”
So he held the spear as he had seen his father hold it. As the wolf
came nearer, he raised it. As the wolf jumped, he threw it with all his
might right into the wide-open mouth. There was a howl, a growl, and
then the wolf tried to run away. But Ahmow wound the spear line around
the sledge post and held it tight.
Nannook shot two of the wolves, but the one that had the meat got away
with it.
Then as he ran to the sledge, “Look, father,” cried Ahmow. “See this
fine wolf, with the sharp nose, and the bushy tail. He is held fast
with the walrus line, and he has eaten the walrus spear.”
“Well done, lad,” said his father. “You will be a good hunter. Now,
you shall have a spear of your own and you shall go with me on the big
hunts.”
So from that day the boy was a hunter, and the people in the village
called him “Ahmow,” which means, “little wolf.”
—_Frederick Schwatka._