When the thing had stopped swinging, he stood on his tiptoes and smelled of it. "E-ee-ee! How good it smells," he cried. "I just believe that is Omnok"s "pooksack" of seal oil which mother has been talking about!"
Little Black Bear"s mouth began to water and water, for his mother had told him there was nothing half so good in the world as fine, rich seal oil.
Now how was Little Black Bear going to get that oil out of that "pooksack"? He thought and thought and thought. At last he remembered the sleeves which were tied up. They were tied way down at the ends, and there must be seal oil right down to the very tips. His mouth was too small to bite the "pooksack", but one of these sleeves,--that was the very thing! He would bite one of those, hard! with his sharp teeth, and the oil would come right out into his mouth!
He had to stand on his tiptoes to reach, but at last he set his teeth hard and _Ah-ne-ca!_ How good that seal oil did taste! It went gurgle, gurgle, right down his throat so fast he could hardly get time to swallow.
But very soon he began to feel as if he had had quite enough. How was he going to stop the seal oil from coming out? Well, he couldn"t do that.
He would just have to open his mouth and dodge right out of the way quick. "That will be easy," he thought to himself. Anyway, he took two or three more swallows, then he opened his mouth wide, and _Ah-ne-ca!_ before he could move one bit, that seal oil shot him right in the eyes and ears and began to run down his back so fast he couldn"t even give one grunt. You should have seen that little bear! He was oil from head to foot! And as for his fine, silky, glossy, black coat, he was just sure it was ruined! He didn"t stop a minute to see if Little White Bear was out of Omnok"s house, but ran home as fast as ever he could.
"Why! Why!" cried his mother, as he came into the house. "Where have you been?"
Little Black Bear couldn"t say a word. He just crawled over in one corner and looked down at his toes.
And was his coat really ruined? Ask puss if her coat is ruined some day when she comes in out of the rain, and see what she will say. Mother Black Bear cleaned that coat up that very night so it looked better then new, but how she did it I wouldn"t pretend to say.
CHAPTER X
FUN FOR TWO LITTLE BEARS
Little White Bear and Little Black Bear met at the snow hill next day, but Little White Bear didn"t jump into Little Black Bear"s sharp claws, and you may be very, very sure they didn"t go exploring around Omnok"s house! They did go way, way out on the white roof of the ocean. There were splendid hills of ice to hide behind, and everywhere were great ice boulders over which they could play leap-frog.
Little White Bear had just started to leap over one fine, large boulder, and Little Black Bear was coming right after him, when all of a sudden Little White Bear turned a backward somersault and tumbled right into Little Black Bear.
"Wow!" howled Little Black Bear. "What"s the matter?"
"Shish!" whispered Little White Bear. "I saw something!"
"On the ice?" asked Little Black Bear, beginning to be frightened.
"Right out there a little bit farther," whispered Little White Bear.
"And it was the biggest thing! Oh! My! I can"t tell how big it was!"
Then Little Black Bear was frightened! What could it be, way out here on the ice, miles and miles from sh.o.r.e? Little White Bear hadn"t seen it move, but how could it get way out here if it weren"t alive? Trees and things like that couldn"t grow on the roof of the ocean.
They lay crouched down behind that big ice boulder until Little White Bear"s foot had gone to sleep, and Little Black Bear was catching cold from sitting on the ice.
"I am going to peek round and see if it has moved," said Little White Bear bravely. He looked, and it hadn"t moved one little bit, so it seemed as if it couldn"t really be alive! Perhaps it was something that Omnok had left there. They crept up toward it, little by little, until they were right up to it, and what do you think? It was nothing but Omnok"s big whaling boat he had left on the ice.
They looked all around to see if Omnok were about, then they tumbled right into that boat for a frolic. There were a great many things in the boat, but the most interesting of all was a great, long "pooksack." It wasn"t full of seal oil. If it had been, I am quite sure Little Black Bear would have had nothing to do with it. It was just full of air.
Omnok had used it for a sled when he drew his boat over the roof of the ocean. And what a splendid football it did make, and how they did knock it about! First Little White Bear would give it a boost with his big, clumsy paws, then Little Black Bear would boost it right over Little White Bear"s head! Then there would be a scramble to see who would get to it first. But one time Little Black Bear kicked it right over Little White Bear"s head so high that it tumbled off the roof of the ocean and down into the great dark sea. And Little White Bear tumbled right into the ocean after it! Yes, sir! Right into the water, and you never saw water so cold in all your life! Little White Bear didn"t scramble out as fast as ever he could! He just climbed up on that "pooksack", happy as a clam, and wanted Little Black Bear to come in too! Little Black Bear, however, had a notion that the water was cold, so he touched it with his toe and "Um-m-m! Um-m-m!" he didn"t want any swim that day. But Little White Bear wouldn"t come out of the water and play, so all Little Black Bear could do was to skip along home and tell his mother that he was quite sure that Little White Bear would freeze to death that very night.
"Oh, no!" said Madam Black Bear, looking very wise. "Little White Bear won"t freeze to death."
"Why," said Little Black Bear, opening his eyes wide, "I"m sure I"d freeze right away."
"So you would," said his mother. "You were a wise young fellow to try the water before you ventured in. But Little White Bear is quite different. He has a very warm coat and is very fat. He is used to the cold water and will live in it all winter. But just you wait," she added, with a sly wink. "You will have a surprise for him some day! When he comes to look for you some cold, cold time, won"t he be surprised to find you snugly tucked away in bed and sleeping all day and all night?
Won"t he, though?"
Madam Black Bear laughed a big bear laugh, and Little Black Bear laughed a little bear laugh, so together they were after all two of the happiest bears in all the world.
When Omnok went out on the roof of the sea to get his big boat, he saw what Little White Bear and Little Black Bear had done. He was very angry when he saw that his "pooksack" was gone. He thought Big White Bear had been there.
"I"ll go hunting for him to-morrow morning," he said to himself. "And I"ll take Huskie, my Malemute dog, along!"
CHAPTER XI
BIG WHITE BEAR MEETS HUSKIE
"Now, I"ll tell you," Omnok said to Huskie, "Big White Bear is a great big bully. He likes to fight all the little folks of the tundra and sea because he is so big. It would be a good thing if we could show him that he isn"t so awfully big, after all. Wouldn"t it?"
"Ki, yi, yiyi," said Huskie, which meant he thought it would.
"Well, then, this is what you must do. Go running about on the ocean ice everywhere and hunt for him. I will be hunting too. If you find him first, run away, then call me. I will shoot him. Do you see?"
"Ki, yiyi," answered Huskie again, meaning this time, "I do."
Huskie ran up and down, in and out among the ice piles, until his feet were sore. He was very anxious to find Big White Bear. Whenever a little fellow has a chance to harm a big fellow he thinks is a bully, he always wants to do it. Did you ever notice that?
So Huskie ran on and on, even if his feet were sore.
"h.e.l.lo!" He had just gone around something he thought was an ice pile when he heard a voice.
Looking up, he saw the face of Big White Bear. What he was going around wasn"t ice at all. It was Big White Bear. And, my! What a monster he was! Huskie had to look away off at Cape Prince of Wales Mountain and look again at Big White Bear before he could tell which was the larger, bear or mountain.
He wanted to run away. But Big White Bear was so very near he didn"t dare to, so he just said "h.e.l.lo!" But to himself he said, "Big White Bear is a big, big bully, just as Omnok said. I am glad he is going to get killed."
"Who are you?" asked Big White Bear.
"I"m Huskie, the Malemute dog. Who are you?"
"I am a Polar Bear. Where did you come from?"
"My home"s over there on the sh.o.r.e," said Huskie, pointing his nose toward sh.o.r.e. "Where"d you come from?"
"I came from far, far North. I"ve never been here before. Didn"t mean to come this time. Last night I went to sleep on a corner of Old Ocean"s blanket. Old Ocean put up his knee in his sleep, and my corner of the blanket slid right down here. What do you think about that?"
"Very strange."
Now Huskie is a great fighter himself, for a little fellow. And great fighters like fight stories. He was just itching to know all about Big White Bear"s big fights.
"Who"d you kill last?" he asked.