The Seven Little Sisters Who Live on the Round Ball That Floats in the Air | Page 8

in the white,
shaggy coat of the bear which its father killed last month. But this is
really Agoonack; you can see her round, fat, greasy little face, if you
throw back the white jumper-hood which covers her head. Shall I tell
you what clothes she wears?

Not at all like yours, you will say; but, when one lives in cold countries,
one must dress accordingly.
First, she has socks, soft and warm, but not knit of the white yarn with
which mamma knits yours. Her mamma has sewed them from the skins
of birds, with the soft down upon them to keep the small brown feet
very warm. Over these come her moccasins of sealskin.
If you have been on the seashore, perhaps you know the seals that are
sometimes seen swimming in the sea, holding up their brown heads,
which look much like dogs' heads, wet and dripping.
The seals love best to live in the seas of the cold countries: here they
are, huddled together on the sloping rocky shores, or swimming about
under the ice, thousands and thousands of silver-gray coated creatures,
gentle seal-mothers and brave fathers with all their pretty seal-babies.
And here the Esquimaux (for that is the name by which we call these
people of the cold countries) hunt them, eat them for dinner, and make
warm clothes of their skins. So, as I told you, Agoonack has sealskin
boots.
Next she wears leggings, or trousers, of white bear-skin, very rough
and shaggy, and a little jacket or frock, called a jumper, of the same.
This jumper has a hood, made like the little red riding-hoods which I
dare say you have all seen. Pull the hood up over the short, black hair,
letting it almost hide the fat, round face, and you have Agoonack
dressed.
Is this her best dress, do you think?
Certainly it is her best, because she has no other, and when she goes
into the house--but I think I won't tell you that yet, for there is
something more to be seen outside.
Agoonack and her mother are coming home to dinner, but there is no
sun shining on the snow to make it sparkle. It is dark like night, and the
stars shine clear and steady like silver lamps in the sky, but far off,
between the great icy peaks, strange lights are dancing, shooting long
rosy flames far into the sky, or marching in troops as if each light had a
life of its own, and all were marching together along the dark, quiet sky.
Now they move slowly and solemnly, with no noise, and in regular,
steady file; then they rush all together, flame into golden and rosy
streamers, and mount far above the cold, icy mountain peaks that glitter
in their light; we hear a sharp sound like Dsah! Dsah! and the ice glows

with the warm color, and the splendor shines on the little white-hooded
girl as she trots beside her mother.
It is far more beautiful than the fireworks on Fourth of July. Sometimes
we see a little of it here, and we say there are northern lights, and we sit
at the window watching all the evening to see them march and turn and
flash; but in the cold countries they are far more brilliant than any we
have seen.
[Illustration]
It is Agoonack's birthday, and there is a present for her before the door
of the house. I will make you a picture of it. "It is a sled," you exclaim.
Yes, a sled; but quite unlike yours. In the faraway cold countries no
trees grow; so her father had no wood, and he took the bones of the
walrus and the whale, bound them together with strips of sealskin, and
he has built this pretty sled for his little daughter's birthday.
It has a back to lean against and hold by, for the child will go over
some very rough places, and might easily fall from it. And then, you
see, if she fell, it would be no easy matter to jump up again and climb
back to her seat, for the little sled would have run away from her before
she should have time to pick herself up. How could it run? Yes, that is
the wonderful thing about it. When her father made the sled he said to
himself, "By the time this is finished, the two little brown dogs will be
old enough to draw it, and Agoonack shall have them; for she is a
princess, the daughter of a great chief."
Now you can see that, with two such brisk little dogs as the brown
puppies harnessed to the sled, Agoonack must keep her seat firmly, that
she may not roll over into the snow and let