The next day was Fourth of July, and it was decided to have a holiday.
The ship was dressed in her flags, and all who wanted to go went shooting birds or hunting walrus.
AH-NI-GHI´-TO did neither of these things, but she had a happy day and in her diary tells about it:
“July 4, 1901.—A beautiful day. Warm, bright, and sunshiny. The Eskimo men and most of the sailors went out after breakfast to see what they could find, and came in at four o’clock with one hundred and twenty-five ducks, three barrels of eggs, and two walrus. The eggs will be packed away for father’s use in the fall. Mother, father, Percy, and I have been ashore gathering flowers and playing tag and having a fine old-time. Dinner at five o’clock, and then I heard mother and father planning to walk across the country to Etah while Captain Sam took the ‘Windward’ around there. I coaxed them to let me go with them. Mother said I could not walk it because there would be so much climbing to do, but father said, ‘Let her try it. I believe she can do it.’ At half-past seven father had two of the sailors put us ashore and with our kapetahs (fox-skin coats) over our arms we started off. Over the rocks we went—up one side, down the other side, of the cliffs. In some places my feet went into the wet moss above my ankles. The steep, hard snowbanks gave me lots of tumbles. In one place we had to climb around the high steep walls of a cliff with the icy water dashing against them twelve feet below. Father said it was about twelve feet, but I thought it was twenty-five. If I had fallen I should have had the coldest bath I ever had. We had to wade through some of the shallow brooks, and they were cold enough for me. I was very tired, but I had made up my mind not to say a word about it. It took us two hours, and father said we had walked about six miles; but we beat the ‘Windward,’ for when we got to the Igloos at Etah, she was just coming round the point, and that pleased me, for now I could tease Captain Sam. As soon as the ‘Windward’ got in, mother and I went on board, and mother rubbed me down, gave me a cup of cocoa, and put me to bed, too tired to write up my diary; but I wrote it up this morning so the home folks will know what I did on the glorious Fourth.”
XIII
From Etah the “Windward” steamed to Northumberland Island, where the Eskimo women, children (except Koodluk´too), and dogs, with a few of the old men, were landed with their tents and enough food to last them a few weeks.
The ship with the rest on board started for a walrus hunt.
AH-NI-GHI´-TO’S father wanted to get packed away as much meat as possible, with which to feed his natives and dogs during the coming winter. AH-NI-GHI´-TO herself tells how these huge animals were hunted.
