The Eskimo Twins | Page 6

think he did? He stood straight up
on the sled with the leather cord in his hand, and slid down that way!
But then, you see, he was six.
When Monnie's turn came she wanted to go down that way, too. But
Menie said, "No. You'd fall off and bump your nose! You have hardly
any nose as it is, and you'd better save it!"
"I have as much nose as you have, anyway," said Monnie.
"Mine is bigger! I'm a boy!" said Menie.
Koko measured their noses with his finger.
"They are just exactly alike," he said.
Monnie turned hers up at Menie and said, "What did I tell you?"

Menie never said another word about noses. He just changed the
subject. He said, "Let's all slide down at once."
Koko and Menie sat down on the sled. Monnie sat on Menie. Then they
gave a few hitches to the sled and off they went.
Whiz! How they flew!
The pups came running after them. In some places where it was very
slippery the pups coasted, too! But they did not mean to. They did not
like it. The sled was almost at the end of the slide when it struck a piece
of ice. It flew around sideways and spilled all the children in the snow.
Just then Nip and Tup came sliding along behind them. They couldn't
stop, so there they all were in a heap together, with the dogs on top!
Menie rolled over and sat up in the snow. He was holding on to the end
of his nose. "Iyi, iyi!" he howled, "I bumped my nose on a piece of
ice!"
Monnie sat up in the snow, too. She pointed her fur mitten at Menie's
nose and laughed. "Don't you know you haven't much nose?" she said.
"You ought to be more careful of it!"
Koko kicked his feet in the air and laughed at Menie, and the little dogs
barked. Menie thought he'd better laugh, too. He had just let go of his
nose to begin when all of a sudden the little dogs stopped barking and
stood very still!
Their hair stood up on their necks and they began to growl!
"Hark, the dogs see something," said Menie.
Monnie and Koko stopped laughing and listened. They could not hear
anything. They could not see anything. Still Nip and Tup growled. The
twins and Koko. were children of brave hunters, so, although they were
scared, they crept very quietly to the side of the Big Rock and peeped
over.

Just that minute there was a dreadful growl! "Woof!" It was very loud,
and very near, and down on the beach a shadow was moving! It was the
shadow of a great white BEAR!
He was looking for fish and was cross because everything was frozen,
and he could not find any on the beach.
The moment they saw him, the twins and Koko turned and ran for
home as fast as ever their short legs could go! They did not even stop to
get the precious sled. They just ran and ran.
Nip and Tup ran, too, with their ears back and their little tails stuck
straight out behind them!
If they had looked back, they would have seen the bear stand up on his
hind legs and look after them, then get down on all fours and start
toward the Big Rock on a run.
But neither the children nor the little dogs looked back! They just ran
with all their might until they reached the twins' igloo. Then they all
dived into the tunnel like frightened rabbits.
V.
When they came up in the one little room of the igloo at the other end
of the tunnel Kesshoo and Koolee were just crawling out of the warm
fur covers of their bed. Menie and Monnie and Koko and the little dogs
all began to talk at once.
The moment the twins' father and mother heard the word -bear- they
jumped off the sleeping-bench and began to put on their clothes.
They both wore fur trousers and long kamiks, with coats of fur, so they
looked almost as much alike in their clothes as the twins did in theirs.
The mother always wore her hair in a topknot on top of her head, tied
with a leather thong. But now she wanted to make the bear think she
was a man, too, so she pulled it down and let it hang about her face,

just as her husband did.
In two minutes they were ready. Then the father reached for his lance,
the mother took her knife, and they all crawled out of the tunnel.
The father went first, then the mother, then the three children and the
pups. At the opening of the tunnel