The White Czar: A Story of a Polar Bear

by Clarence Hawkes

The winter following the epidemic which had taken so many of the children from them was a gloomy winter for Eskimo Town.

In Eiseeyou's igloo gloom rested even more darkly than elsewhere.

Not only had he lost three of his children, but the long night of blindness had settled upon his favorite Oumauk, and the shadow also rested upon him. This was a double tragedy for Oumauk, as his sister who had been his playmate ever since he could remember had also been taken. The whole circle of sad events seemed to Oumauk like a bad dream from which he must presently awake and see his sister by his side and the stonelamp shining brightly. The joy seemed to have all gone out of the Eskimo boy. He would sit for hours with his head in his hands thinking and wondering what it all meant. He was very silent and would answer only when questioned. Before this tragedy he had been a great chatterbox, so this made him seem doubly strange. The rest of the family tried to interest him. Eiseeyou sought to invent new games in which he could participate. But he could no longer throw the tiny harpoon at the swinging target, the favorite pastime of Eskimo boys, so he did nothing.

Sometimes Eiseeyou or some of the children would dress him up warm in his best clothes and lead him about outside, but he seemed to feel the cold more than ever before and soon pleaded to be taken inside.

Eiseeyou himself was greatly troubled and he planned day and night how to raise the large sum of money so that he might take little Oumauk to Quebec, where the great doctor might restore his eyesight.

He went upon several hard musk ox hunts but ill luck crowned each venture. Although he scoured the old hunting grounds for days, yet Omingmong was not to be found. Eiseeyou's skill and luck as a hunter seemed to have deserted him.

Then he doubled the number of his foxtraps, but several deep snows fell so that he had no luck trapping. At last hope had nearly left him, although he was still on the lookout for the chance to earn the great sum of money, which looked like a mountain of gold to the poor Eskimo.

So it was that the weary winter wore away and spring again came. When Eiseeyou proposed to Oumauk that he again go with him to set up the net for the auks, the boy said that the long night was still with them, and that the auk would not come back until the sun shone again. So he would not go. When he finally ventured from the igloo and felt the warm air of springtime, he was much puzzled. Spring had really come, but the long night was still there.