Part 5 (1/2)

”It's just this way, son,” Mr. Strong explained to him. ”I'm here in government employ, taking government pay to do government work. I must do it and do it well in the shortest time possible. You will have a far better time on the island with Kalitan than you could possibly have loafing around the camp here. You couldn't go to many places where I am going, and, if my mind is easy about you, I can take Chetwoof and do my work in half the time. I'll come to the island in three or four weeks, and we'll take a week's vacation together, and then we'll hit the trail for the gold-fields. Are you satisfied with this arrangement?”

”Yes, sir.” Ted's tone was dubious, but his face soon cleared up. ”A month won't be very long, father.”

”No, I'll wager you'll be sorry to leave when I come for you. Try and not make any trouble. Of course Indian ways are not ours, but you'll get used to it all and enjoy it. It's a chance most boys would be crazy over, and you'll have tales to tell when you get home to make your playmates envy you. I'm glad I have a son I can trust to keep straight when he is out of my sight,” and he laid his hand affectionately on the boy's shoulder. Ted looked his father squarely in the eye, but gave only a little nod in answer, then he laughed his clear, ringing laugh.

”Wouldn't mother have spasms!” he exclaimed. Mr. Strong laughed too, but said:

”You'll be just as well off tumbling around with Kalitan as falling off a glacier or two, as you would be certain to do if you were with me.”

Teddy felt a little blue when he said good-bye to his father, but Kalitan quickly dispelled his gloom by a great piece of news. ”Great time on island,” he said, as the canoe glided toward the dim outline of land to which Ted's thoughts had so often turned. ”Tyee's whale came ash.o.r.e. We go to see him cut up.”

”Hurrah!” cried Ted, delighted. ”To think I shall see all that! What else will we do, Kalitan?”

”Hunt, fish, hear old Kala-kash stories. See berry dance if you stay long enough, perhaps a potlatch; do many things,” said the Indian.

One of the Indian paddlers said something to Kalitan, and he laughed a little, and Ted asked, curiously: ”What did he say?”

”Said Kalitan Tenas learned to talk as much as a Boston boy,” said Kalitan, laughing heartily, and Ted laughed, too.

The canoes were nearing the sh.o.r.e of a wooded island, and Ted saw a fringe of trees and some native houses cl.u.s.tered picturesquely against them at the crest of a small hill which sloped down to the water's edge where stood a group of people awaiting the canoes.

”My home,” said Kalitan, pointing to the largest house, ”my people.”

There was a great deal of pride in his tone and look, and he received a warm welcome as the canoes touched land and their occupants sprang on sh.o.r.e. The boys crowded around the young Indian and chattered and gesticulated toward Ted, while a bright-looking little Malamute sprang upon Kalitan and nearly knocked him down, covering his face with eager puppy kisses.

The girls were less boisterous, and regarded Teddy with shy curiosity.

Some of them were quite pretty, and the babies were as cunning as the puppies. They barked every time the dogs did, in a funny, hoa.r.s.e little way, and, indeed, Alaskan babies learn to bark long before they learn to talk.

The Tyee's wife received Teddy kindly, and he soon found himself quite at home among these hospitable people, who seemed always friendly and natural. Nearly all spoke some English, and he rapidly added to his store of Chinook, so that he had no trouble in making himself understood or in understanding. Of course he missed his father, but he had little time to be lonely. Life in the village was anything but uneventful.

At first there was the whale to be attended to, and all the village turned out for that. The huge creature had drifted ash.o.r.e on the farther side of the island, and Ted was much interested in seeing him gradually disposed of. Great ma.s.ses of blubber were stripped from the sides to be used later both for food and fuel, the whalebone was carefully secured to be sold to the traders, and it seemed to Ted that there was not one thing in that vast carca.s.s for which the Indians did not have some use.

Ted soon tired of watching the many things done with the whale, but there was plenty to do and see in the village. The village houses were all alike. There was one large room in which the people cooked, ate, and slept. The girls had blankets strung across one corner, behind which were their beds. Teddy was given one also for his corner of the great room in the Tyee's house.

He learned to eat the food and to like it very much. There was dried fish, herons' eggs, berries, or those put up in seal oil, which is obtained by frying the fat out of the blubber of the seal. The Alaskans use this oil in nearly all their cooking, and are very fond of it. Ted ate also dried seaweed, chopped and boiled in seal oil, which tasted very much like boiled and salted leather, but he liked it very well. Indeed he grew so strong and well, out-of-doors all day in the clear air and bright suns.h.i.+ne of the Alaskan June, that he could eat anything and tramp all day without being too tired to sleep like a top all night, and wake ready for a new day with a zest he never felt at home.

Fresh fish were plentiful. The boys caught salmon, smelts, and whitefish, and many were dried for the coming winter, while clams, gum-boots, sea-cuc.u.mbers, and devil-fish, found on the rocks of the sh.o.r.e, were every-day diet.

Kalitan's sister and Ted became great friends. She was older than Kalitan, and, though only fifteen, was soon to be married to Tah-ge-ah, a fine young Indian who was ready to pay high for her, which was not strange, for she was both pretty and sweet.

”At the next full moon,” said Kalitan, ”there will be a potlatch, and Tanana will be sold to Tah-ge-ah. He says he will give four hundred blankets for her, and my uncle is well pleased. Many only pay ten blankets for a wife, but of course we would not sell my sister for that.

She is of high caste, chief's daughter, niece, and sister,” the boy spoke proudly, and Ted answered:

”She's so pretty, too. She's not like the Indian girls I saw at Wrangel and Juneau. Why, there the women sat around as dirty as dogs on the sidewalk, and didn't seem to care how they looked. They had baskets to sell, and were too lazy to care whether any one bought them or not. They weren't a bit like Tanana. She's as pretty as a j.a.panese.”

Kalitan smiled, well pleased, and Ted added, ”I guess the Thlinkits must be the best Indians in Alaska.”

Kalitan laughed outright at this.