“Yes, sir,” agreed Jimmy.

“Good!  Good!” exclaimed Skipper Ed.  “Here, shake hands on it, partner.  Now we’re friends to each other, whatever falls, good voyages and poor ones, and there’s better luck coming for us both, lad, better luck.”

And so Skipper Ed and Jimmy Sanderson formed their partnership, and Jimmy, with his own and his father’s kits, went ashore with Skipper Ed in Skipper Ed’s boat, which he insisted was half Jimmy’s, under their partnership agreement, and the next day the schooner sailed away and left them.  And with the passing weeks, Time, as Skipper Ed had predicted, and as he always does, healed Jimmy’s sorrow, and he came to look upon Skipper Ed as the finest man and the finest partner in the world, and they two loved each other very much.

Abel and his wife and Skipper Ed and his partner lived upon terms of intimacy and good comradeship, as neighbors should.  And because they had no nearer neighbors than Abraham Moses, an Eskimo ten miles to the southward, and the people of the Moravian Mission and Eskimo settlement at Nain, twenty miles to the northward, the two families were dependent upon one another for human companionship, and therefore the bond of friendship that drew them together was the stronger.

And so it happened that early on the morning following the return of Abel and Mrs. Abel with Bobby, Skipper Ed and Jimmy walked over to welcome their neighbors home, and to discuss with them the fishing season just closed, and the seal hunting and the trapping seasons which were at hand.

Abel was engaged in cutting and shaping the sticks from which he was to build Bobby’s little bunk, when he heard Skipper Ed’s cheery: 

“Oksunae!"[A]

“Oksutingal!"[A] exclaimed Abel, delightedly, grasping Skipper Ed’s hand and then Jimmy’s hand and laughing with pleasure. “Oksutingai!  I am glad to see you, and how have you been?”

[Footnote A:  “Oksunae” is the Eskimo greeting when one is addressed, and, literally translated, means “You be strong.” “Oksutingai" is addressed to two—­“You two be strong.” “Okiusee" to more than two—­“You all be strong.”]

Abel spoke his native language, for his tongue was awkward with the few English words he had learned.  He and Skipper Ed, indeed, always conversed in Eskimo, and Jimmy, though he usually spoke his native English at home when he and Skipper Ed were alone, also understood the Eskimo tongue perfectly.

“We’re very well,” said Skipper Ed, “and glad to know you are back.  We were lonely without you.  How is Mrs. Abel?”

“Well.  Very well.  And we have something to surprise you,” and Abel, laughing heartily, could hardly contain himself.

“I know what it is!” broke in Jimmy.  “You’ve got a new boat.  I saw it as we came up!  It’s a fine big boat, too!”

“It’s a greater surprise than that,” laughed Abel.  “It’s in the house.  Come in and see him.”