March went and April came, with “April Fool’s Day” and Easter, of which, of course, AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S Eskimo friends knew nothing.

During April there were many pleasant days, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO and her mother were out most of the time.

The Eskimos crossed Smith Sound to the open water off the Greenland shore, where the walrus were plentiful and where most of the tribe gather every spring for the hunt. Each family builds a snow igloo, and there they stay and hunt and feast until the breaking up of the ice warns them that if they wish to return to their settlement before the next autumn they must move on.

Only one family and an orphan boy remained with the ship. This boy was the son of Magipsu, the seamstress who sewed for AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S mother the first time she came to the Snowland, and whom she found dying two years later.

This poor little fellow had also lost his father since then and was all alone. No one in particular took care of him, but if he needed clothing the family who could best spare it gave it to him, and his food he got wherever he happened to be.

Koodluk´too, or “Good luck to you” as Charley called him, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO became great friends, and AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S mother said he could stay on the ship and she would take care of him as long as she remained in the Snowland.

This gave AH-NI-GHI´-TO a constant companion and guide; for he knew the feeding places of the hare and the fox, and the nesting places of the Eider duck, the Brant Goose, and other birds whose eggs would be a very welcome change on the bill of fare.

Though young, Koodluk’too, like all the Eskimo boys, could drive dogs, and he and AH-NI-GHI´-TO had frequent rides drawn by six or eight dogs that looked for all the world like wolves. She wrote:

A beautiful day, and I have had such fun. Koodluk’too took me out sledge-riding way round Elephant Head and back. The dogs were not used to pulling together, so that we did not always go where we wanted to.

“As the dogs are guided by the whip and not with reins like our horses, it kept poor Koodluk’too’s arm going all the time, and he got so excited when they would not obey him that he cut me over the head and round the neck as he swung the whip over his shoulder. But my fur hood is so thick that it did not hurt me at all. It made him feel badly because he says the men don’t do that and he ought to know better.

“I thought he would surely be hoarse, for he kept shouting to the dogs all the time.

“Once when we crossed a fox’s track on the ice the dogs started off in a gallop to follow it, and the only way Koodluk’too could stop them was to steer the sledge up against a big lump of solid ice. It gave me a fearful bump and would have thrown me off if he had not warned me to hold tight.

“The dogs look very pretty when they are going along. Each one has his bushy tail laid up on his back like a feather duster.

“It is fine sport to skim over the smooth ice, but I don’t believe I should like to ride all day long.”

Before leaving, one of the Eskimo men gave AH-NI-GHI´-TO a puppy with which she and Koodluk’too had great sport. She was reddish-brown in colour and AH-NI-GHI´-TO named her “Cinnamon,” but called her “Cin” for short. She was full of mischief and was known to the sailors as “Sinful.”

On May 5th AH-NI-GHI´-TO coaxed her mother to have cake baked, so that she could feast her friends the next day, it being her father’s birthday. All day she was busy with Charley getting her feast ready, and when night came she was glad to climb into her bunk and go to sleep. She did not dream that something great would happen before breakfast the next day.

The next evening she wrote in her diary:

“May 6. It seemed as though I had only just closed my eyes when I was awakened by Mother, who was sitting up in bed calling, ‘Charley, Charley, unlock the cabin door quickly, Mr. Peary has come.’ At first I thought she was dreaming, but a second later I heard some one rattling at the cabin door, while Charley, half asleep, was trying to unlock it. Then a great giant all dressed in bear and deer skins was coming toward the bed asking for his baby, and here was Father really and truly, safe and well, and on his birthday too; glory, glory, now we could really celebrate, and Mother knew his step even when she was asleep. Dear old Dad, he looks the same. Of course we got right up and dressed, while Father took his bath, and at five o’clock in the morning our whole family sat down to breakfast together, for the first time in three years. The day has been a holiday for every one on board.”