About the middle of July there were nearly ten thousand pounds of clear meat on board, and as the weather was fine it was thought best to take the “Windward” back to her winter home and there land the meat.
This was done without meeting any ice; but after reaching the little harbour the wind blew a gale for several hours.
AH-NI-GHI´-TO was on shore during this time and wrote about it in her diary.
“July 16.—Fine day. Wind blowing hard in the evening. After dinner mother and father and I went ashore, and I pinned some more pictures on the walls of father’s room and his dining-room. When I got through we went to the lake, where I spent some time sailing my boats and digging in the water among the rocks. About five p. m. my feet were very wet and we started for the ship. We saw her driving away from the shore. The wind was blowing a gale so that we could hardly stand up against it. But the ship sailed off out of sight. We waited and ‘shivered our timbers,’ but she did not come back, so we went to father’s house and a fire was made at once. Mother took off my wet kamiks and stockings and I put on a pair of father’s socks. We had supper in regular picnic style. A box on father’s trunk was our table, a paper on it was our cloth, beans and corn in the can, coffee we drank out of beer-mugs, and biscuit galore made our hearty supper.
“We were just beginning to plan how we should spend the night, when ‘hoot’ went a whistle, and looking out of the window we saw the old ship in the harbour. The wind was not blowing so hard now, so I put on my kamiks and we went aboard. Here we learned that the ‘Windward’ had actually been blown from her fastenings, and the Captain had to steam out to keep her from going on the rocks.
“To-night I feel as if I had been on a picnic.
“We leave here in a few minutes for Etah, and to-morrow I am going to have a day with father and mother among the bird cliffs near Etah.”
Ah’-wik-so-ah (The Walrus)
“I wonder if Mrs. Walrus kisses him sometimes”