But the most astonishing thing that the three hunters brought was Whitie, the little polar bear. And the most excited person in all Eskimo Town was little Oumauk, who at once appropriated the small bear.
Although it was well on in the evening when the hunting party returned, yet half of the people in the village flocked to Eiseeyou's igloo to see the small bear. But little Oumauk was very jealous of them all, and would hardly take his hands off the cub long enough for the rest to admire it.
The first question which at once arose was what and how to feed the cub. Meat was out of the question, and there was no milk in the village. The life of the cub might have ended then and there by slow starvation had not Eiseeyou remembered a case of evaporated milk which had been brought to the village the winter before, during an epidemic among the children. They had brought several cases, but only one was still unused. So Eiseeyou at once went to a deserted igloo where the milk had been cached and dug it out. A can was quickly opened, and some of the milk diluted with water to what Eiseeyou thought would be the proper bear thickness.
This was placed in a small pewter dish which the igloo boasted.
Eiseeyou then took the small bear on his lap and by putting his nose partly in the milk, and also by putting the tip of his little finger in the bear's mouth, the ingenious Eskimo had Whitie drinking in a very few minutes.
When he had drunk all the milk that he would, little Oumauk claimed him. So he was wrapped in the lightest warmest fur that the igloo contained and placed on the sleeping bench beside little Oumauk, and the musk ox robe was covered over both of them.
Eiseeyou cautioned his son to be careful not to roll on Whitie, and not to handle him too much until he should get stronger.
Five minutes later when Eiseeyou's kooner lifted up the edge of the robe to see them, both were sleeping soundly and the head of the child rested against that of the small bear.