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Updated: September 12, 2025
Reasoning that one or both of these natives might be useful in later plans, he at last held out his hand to Jimmy, and with some effort persuaded Skookie that it would be better for him to shake hands with Jimmy than to take a rifle and shoot him, as the boy seemed more disposed to do. He knew that these natives soon forget their animosities.
John turned to his friend Skookie. "S'pose you catch-um geese, Skookie?" he asked. The Aleut boy surprised them very much by his sudden use of English. "Sure!" he said. He had perhaps learned this word from associating with whites somewhere down the coast. His prompt reply made them all laugh, but none the less it was of yet greater interest than this. "How do you mean, Skookie?" asked Rob.
"Natu salmon," said Skookie one morning, poking his head in at the door of the barabbara, where the others still sat, washing up the breakfast dishes. "What's that he says, John?" asked Rob, who seemed less ready than the younger boy to pick up the native speech. "Natu means nothing or no or not," interpreted John. "What's the matter with the salmon, Skookie?"
"See, it's almost as long as my arm. I'll bet it's eighteen or twenty inches long, measured as it is. But what could have killed it? Nothing could kill a bear except another bear; but that wouldn't account for the head being here all alone. Skookie, what do you think about this?" "My peoples, maybe so," said Skookie. "Your peoples? Why, I thought you said no one lived over on this side.
Rob studied the bay and the sky for some time. "What do you say, boys?" he asked. "Shall we try to make it across to-night? I don't like the look of things out there, and you know it's a long pull." "Well," said John, "I'm for starting across. There's no place to stop here, and I don't like this place any more than Skookie does, anyhow."
"We certainly did get a fox, and the very first night, too." "Yes," agreed Rob, "we did more than that: we got a silver-gray fox, and a mighty good one at that. Was there ever such luck, I do wonder!" Skookie took it all as a matter of course, but the others were much excited over this discovery. They put the silky, handsome animal upon the ground and began to smooth out its fur.
Skookie, apparently willing to go on with his work, or to stop as they preferred, smilingly took up his klipsie, after he had sprung the trap, detached the arm, and restored the separated parts to their original hiding-places. "Plenty times my peoples come here," he said, smiling.
Skookie broke out into wild peals of laughter at this mishap, which left John none too well pleased. Rob and Jesse, however, bent over him as he whimpered with the pain, and did what they could to make amends for the disaster. "Hot water is best for a cut," said Rob, taking their tea-vessel from the fire and looking about for a piece of rag.
Fumbling in this heap of narrow sticks, each of which was about as long as a boy's arm, Skookie at last picked out one which suited him. They discovered that the end of it was armed with four or five spikes apparently made of old nails hammered to a point and filed into a barb.
And we've seen no signs of hunting here anywhere." Skookie went on to explain. "S'pose my peoples hunt. Kill big bear. Some mans take hide, some mans take meat, some mans take head. Dis head not good for eat, but very much heavy. Some mans get tired, lay it down here; maybe so birds eat-um all up but bone." "But how long ago did all this happen, Skookie?" asked John. "I dinno."
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