The days kept getting longer and longer; that is, the sun rose earlier and set later each day until on March 21st, Spring’s opening, he shone from 6 o’clock in the morning until 6 o’clock in the evening and there was daylight all night long. Strange to say, it was now very much colder than it had been while it was dark. But no one minded the cold as long as the sun shone.
The Eskimos from across Smith Sound came oftener to visit the ship, and every time they brought AH-NI-GHI´-TO either fur mittens or stockings or kamiks; and what pleased her most, numbers of children came with them. She wrote:
“I shall get Billy to wash them”
“When Achatinǵwah and I came in from coasting to-day, we found eight sledges with Eskimos had come over from Etah, and oh, there are so many children I know we are going to have a good time.
“Three of the women have tiny babies in their hoods. One of them was brought to the mother just before she started for the ship. It is much uglier than the others. Its head wobbles back and forth against its mother’s bare shoulder. She carries it all naked, except for a little tight fur cap and a short fox-skin shirt, in a hood on her back right next her bare skin, which helps keep it warm. Its eyes are never open, and it makes me think of a young kitten.
“The other two must be older, for they can hold up their heads, and they have their eyes open all the time when they are awake.
“When the mothers want to feed them they take the little naked things out of the hoods, without covering them—right out on deck in the cold, and the babies don’t seem to mind it at all. Then there are some little boys. I shall get Billy to wash them to-morrow so I can play with them.
“They all have black hair and big black eyes and white teeth and such little flat noses, and they wear the funniest little short trousers made of bear-skin, with tiny fur-lined boots and big fox-skin coats. I could laugh every time I look at them.
