The “Windward” was run alongside of the rocks and made fast, and every one except a watchman intended to get a good night’s rest; the first in more than a week, for the next morning coal and provisions must be landed and this meant hard work for the men.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her mother too were glad go to bed. This they had not been able to do while pounding through the ice, for the big floes might crush the ship at any moment, and every one had to be ready to jump into the boats and leave her.

Now they had a fine bath and told Percy she need not call them for breakfast, as they wanted to sleep.

At five o’clock in the morning Captain Sam knocked on the cabin door and called to AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S mother to get up and dress herself and AH-NI-GHI´-TO as quickly as possible. A brisk wind which sprang up towards morning had blown the ship in against the rocks, and here when the tide went out she lay with one side on the rocks, with only a few feet of water under her, and with the other side, where there were no rocks, far down in the water. As no one knew how much lower the tide would fall, Captain Sam thought it best to get every one and everything of value ashore as quickly as possible, for fear the vessel would capsize and sink.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S mother awoke her. By this time the cabin floor was almost at right angles to what it should have been,—the slant so steep that it was impossible to walk on it.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO, still in her berth, was quickly dressed in her warmest clothes, and after putting her own clothing on, AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S mother gathered the important papers and as much warm clothing as possible into a bag; AH-NI-GHI´-TO begging all the time not to leave her dolly and her kitty. When this was done Percy took the bag, and Captain Sam and the steward helped them on deck. This was not very easy, as some of you may find out if you try to crawl up a board with one end on a barrel and the other on the ground. Again and again one or the other slipped back, but at last the deck was reached, and now all that could be done was to sit down and slide over the side into a boat held there by the sailors, for the water was on a level with this side of the deck, while the opposite side looked as if it were right overhead.

Although this was the 30th day of August, the snow was falling so fast that the shore, a few yards away, could hardly be seen. Thither the boat was rowed, and there AH-NI-GHI´-TO with her mother and Percy landed.

AH-NI-GHI´-TO did not realize that the ship was in great danger, and so her one thought was to have a good time. Together with the Eskimo girl Achatin?wah and Percy the maid, she snowballed and made snow forts, which were shot at with cannon-balls made of snow; when tired of this she went off to explore a little valley where Achatin?wah told her there was a lake.

They were gone about an hour, and when they returned AH-NI-GHI´-TO was much excited and said she had seen footprints of an animal, which Achatin?wah told her were fox-tracks. She followed them for a short distance, when they were crossed by hare-tracks. These she followed up the side of the cliff, and all at once around the corner of a big boulder peeped the hare himself. He was sitting on his hind legs, his nose twitching as he sniffed her,—a fine, large fellow, snowy white all over except the tips of his ears, which were black. AH-NI-GHI´-TO thought he was tame like the little white bunnies at home, but as soon as she came near him away he scampered much faster than the children could follow.

At ten o’clock the good ship was once more afloat and out of danger but not quite upright yet. As AH-NI-GHI´-TO was very hungry by this time, all went on board. The steward had lighted a fire in the cabin stove and swept the water out of the cabin, but everything was still wet. Breakfast was prepared at once and soon every one was feeling better, but very tired. Getting up at five o’clock in the morning and being put out in a blinding snowstorm for five hours without anything to eat or drink, and without even a place where one can sit down unless it is on the snow-covered ground, is not at all pleasant.

The poor men who had been working waist-deep in the icy water were worn out and could do no more work that day.

Two days later all needed supplies had been landed and the “Windward” was ready to start north again. Captain Sam, who had been carefully watching the ice drift past the harbour day and night, now told AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S mother that a large field of ice had been pushed across the entrance to the harbor and shut the door, so to speak, on the ship, and nothing could be done.

If this field of ice should break up then the ship would be free to go on her way; but unless the wind broke it up or blew it away from the entrance, AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her mother with all on board would be prisoners for the winter.

This was a dreadful thing to happen, for no one had taken clothing enough to last so long a time. Thanks to AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father, there was food enough for every one, such as it was. AH-NI-GHI´-TO had learned to eat many things that she thought she could never eat, and also to do without things that she had thought were necessary.

One morning AH-NI-GHI´-TO awoke and found it was September 12th. Then there was great rejoicing all over the ship, for this was AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S seventh birthday, and the fourth one spent in the Snowland.

She jumped out of bed to see what kind friends had given the “Birthday Man” to bring her, and was kept busy as a bee all day long. In her diary she wrote the story of the day.