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Kannoa, a very old dried-up but lively woman with sparkling black eyes, also formed one of the group. "Won't we be happy!" whispered Pussimek, when Ujarak spoke in glowing terms of the abundance that was in prospect. She followed up the whisper by hugging the baby. "Yes, a good time is coming," said the mother of Ippegoo, with a pleasant nod. "We will keep the cooking-lamps blazing night and "
"Well, it will require you to run at your top speed to get there while you count fifteen twenties. Now, if you run there within that time at your very top speed, mind " Rooney paused, and looked serious. "Yes; well?" said Ippegoo, whose curiosity had already begun to check the groans.
"It will, for Ujarak is tough. He is like a walrus," responded an admirer of the wizard. "Poo!" exclaimed the mother of Ippegoo contemptuously; "he can indeed roar like the walrus, but he can do nothing else." "Yes; and his strength goes for nothing," cried a sympathiser, "for it is his brain, not his body, that has got to work."
He flew into a violent rage, grasped the handle of his knife, and glared fiercely at his pupil. Ippegoo returned the look with a quiet smile. This was perplexing. There are few things more trying to passionate men than uncertainty as to how their bursts of anger will be received. As a rule such men are merely actors.
"Ippegoo, I have work of more importance for you to do than spearing birds work that requires the wisdom of a young angekok." All Ujarak's backhanders vanished before this confidential remark, and the poor tool began to feel as if he were growing taller and broader even as he walked. "You know the hut of Okiok?" continued the wizard. "Yes; under the ice-topped cliff." "Well, Angut is there.
Almost immediately he learned to puff, and in a very short time was rolling thick white clouds from him like a turret-gun in action. Evidently he was proud of his rapid attainments. "Humph! That won't last long," murmured Rooney to his companion. "Isn't it good?" said Kajo to Ippegoo. "Ye-es. O yes. It's good; a-at least, I suppose it is," replied the youth, with modesty.
And so they had; and the wizard accepted that involuntary sigh as an evidence of the success of his effort to amuse. "How big was that bear?" asked Ippegoo, gazing on his master with a look of envious admiration. "How big?" repeated Ujarak; "oh, as big far bigger than than the biggest bear I have ever seen." "Oh, then it was an invisible bear, was it?" asked Okiok in surprise. "How?
Turning quickly, he beheld Ippegoo holding his jaws with both hands and with an expression of unutterable woe on his face. "Halo, Ippe, what's wrong with you?" A groan was the reply, and Rooney, although somewhat anxious, found it difficult to restrain a laugh. "I've got oh! oh! oh! oh! a mad tooth," gasped the poor youth. "A mad tooth! Poor fellow! we call that toothache where I come from."
I hate Angut!" "So do I," said Ippegoo, with emphasis quite equal to that of his master. "And Nunaga is there," continued Ujarak. "I I love Nunaga!" "So do I," exclaimed Ippegoo fervently, but seeing by the wizard's majestic frown that he had been precipitate, he took refuge in the hasty explanation "Of course I mean that that I love her because you love her. I do not love her for herself.
Then, setting-to with an expression that might have indicated the woes of a lifetime, he made a hearty breakfast. Thereafter he kept moving about the village all day in absolute silence, and with a profound gloom on his face, by which the risibility of some was tickled, while not a few were more or less awe-stricken. It soon began to be rumoured that Ippegoo was the angekok-elect.
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