Although the village looked just the same, other things looked
quite different. Nip and Tup were big dogs by this time. They ran
away up the beach with Tooky and the other dogs the moment they
were out of the boats. They did not stay with the twins all the
time now, as they used to do. The twins were much bigger, too.
Koolee looked at them as they helped her carry the tent-skins up
from the beach, and said to them, "My goodness, I must make my
needles fly! winter is upon us and your clothes are getting too
small for you! You must have new things right away." The twins
thought this was a very good idea. They liked new clothes as well
as any one in the world.
Koolee set up the tent beside their old igloo, and there they
lived while the men of the village went out every day in their
kyaks for seal and walrus, or back into the hills after other
game to store away for food during the long winter. The women
scraped and cured the skins and cut up the meat and packed it
away as fast as the men could kill the game and bring it home.
Each day it grew colder, and each night was longer than the last,
until one short September day there came a great snow storm! It
snowed all day long, and that night the wind blew so hard that
Koolee and the twins nearly froze even among the fur covers of
their bed, and when morning came they found themselves nearly
buried under a great drift.
That very day Koolee put the stones over the roof of the igloo
once more, and the twins helped her fill in the chinks with moss
and earth, and cover it with a heavy layer of snow, patted down
with the snow shovel, until everything was snug and tight again.
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