After some further discussion, the party retraced its steps, with Art explaining to the boys the big difference existing between the semi-civilized Eskimos of Alaska and the little that was known of the wild Eskimos of the Arctic.
“Folks think Alaska’s right up next to the North Pole,” he said. “Leastways folks in the States do. People comin’ to Nome from the States every so often give me that knowledge. But they’re shore mistaken. Alaska’s great country that’ll be settled up some day. Shore, we got hard Winters. But boys, in the Summer, with the sun a-shinin’ all the time, everything grows just three times as fast as in the States. My Pap was a farmer back in York State, an’ I was raised on a farm. We had hard scratchin’ an’ our Winters was long an’ hard, too. An’ we didn’t have Summers like in Alaska to make up for ’em. I’ll bet if my Pap were livin’ today an’ farmin’ in Alaska he’d find life a lot easier than what we had it on the old farm.”
“But why don’t more people live in Alaska, then?” asked Frank.
“Oh, I don’t know. Hard to get to, for one thing. Ain’t developed up with railroads, neither. Some day, though, you’ll see ’em forced to come here, the way they’re a-crowdin’ up down in the States. Why, we got only 60,000 people in all Alaska, yet she’s quarter as big as the States an’ could darn near feed the whole push herself, if she was put to it and farmed right.”
“Art, why don’t you go to farming? I’d think that would be the thing for you to do.”
“Mebbe I will some day,” said Art. “But I’m an old batch. Got no wife, an’ kind o’ like to feel free to knock around instead o’ bein’ tied to one place.”
It was a feeling with which the boys could sympathize. They were young, with life ahead of them, and they wanted to see the world. In fact they had seen a good deal of it already, as those who have followed them through their various adventures, know. Of this they spoke as they made their way back to camp, where they discovered Farnum ready to turn in, and merely awaiting their return before doing so. Since their first encounter with Lupo, and their discovery that they were not alone in the wilderness, a watch was always kept, and Farnum had combatted sleepiness in order to keep guard until their return.
“Art, you’ve got the first watch,” he said, when they appeared. “The rest of you better turn in, and not sit up talking. With luck we ought to make the Coppermine tomorrow, I figure, and then we’ll do some traveling. We’ve got to hit a fast pace from now on, for already we are having real twilight, and pretty soon we’ll be having short nights while the sun dips entirely below the horizon. That means the season is growing short, and we have not got much time left before we’ll have to start for the outside.”
Jack and Bob heeded the injunction and followed Farnum’s example shortly, but Frank, who did not feel sleepy and, moreover, loved to talk, sat up a considerable time gossiping with Art and telling him of some of their previous adventures.
Suddenly, as he talked along, low-voiced so as not disturb the nearby sleepers, Frank noticed Art was not paying attention, and stopped.