Then they moved in. By the next day all the igloos in the village
were in use, and when night came their windows shone with the
light of the lamps, just as they had so many months before.
Nip and Tup slept outside with Tooky now, in a snow house which
Kesshoo had built for them. Menie and Monnie missed them, but
Koolee said, "You are getting so big now you must begin to do
something besides play with puppies. Monnie must learn to sew,
and Menie must help Father with feeding the dogs and looking
after their harnesses, and driving the sledge."
"Maybe Father will teach you both to carve fine things out of
ivory this winter! Monnie will soon need her own thimble and
needles. They must be made. And she can help me clean the skins
and suck out the blubber, and prepare them for being made into
clothes!"
"Dear me! what a lot there is to do to keep clothes on our backs
and food in our mouths! The Giants are always waiting before the
igloo and we must work very hard to keep them outside!"
She did not mean real giants. She meant that Hunger and Want are
always waiting to seize the Eskimo who does not work all the time
to supply food for himself and his family. She meant that Menie
must learn to be a brave strong hunter, afraid of nothing on sea
or land, and that Monnie must learn to do a woman's work well, or
else the time would come when they would be without food or
shelter or clothing, and the fierce cold would soon make an, end
of them.
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