II
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.
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.