Abel, therefore, had constant need of dogs, and he now had sixteen fine big fellows, which so nearly resembled the great wolves of the barrens that were dogs and wolves to intermingle only the practiced eye could distinguish the one from the other.  These dogs never barked, but howled with the weird, dismal howl of the wolf.  And when they were hungry they were such dangerous, savage brutes that it was unsafe for a stranger, unless armed with a cudgel, to wander among them.

With sixteen dogs Abel could muster two ordinary teams of eight dogs each, or one powerful team of ten or twelve, or even the entire number.

Skipper Ed and Jimmy, when they required the services of dogs, could always borrow a team from Abel, and to repay this courtesy it was their custom to join in the autumn and spring seal hunts, and to contribute the carcasses of the seals they killed to Abel, retaining only the skins, which Mrs. Abel dressed and made up for them into boots and winter garments and sleeping bags, as needs demanded.

It was a Saturday evening when Bobby finally received Abel’s consent for him to go to the sena seal hunting.  He was preparing to go over, as was his custom on Saturdays, to spend the evening with Skipper Ed and Jimmy in reading and study, and when he had eaten his supper he donned his snowshoes and netsek[D] and hurried eagerly away to Skipper Ed’s cabin to invite Jimmy to join him in the adventure.

[Footnote D:  An Eskimo garment of seal skin, which is drawn on over the head like a shirt, and has a hood to protect the head.  When this garment is made of caribou skin it is called a kulutuk, and when made of cloth, an adikey.]

“Yes, to be sure, Partner, you must go with Bobby,” said Skipper Ed.  “But it’s going to be bleak and cold out there.  It’s a man’s work at this season, hunting at the sena, and a strong man’s work, too.  Perhaps I had better go along.  Then we can take two teams of dogs.”

“That will be dandy!” exclaimed Bobby, “We’ll have a fine time!”

“Yes, Partner, come!” urged Jimmy.  “You can leave your traps for a week.”

“I think I can—­yes, I’ll go,” Skipper Ed decided.  “I was never hunting at the sena but twice, though, and I’ve never forgotten my first experience.  It was a good many years ago, before you came, Partner.  I went with Abel.  We had a hard time of it that year, for stormy weather came up and we nearly perished in a blizzard.”

“We’ll build a snow igloo” said Bobby, “and be pretty comfortable.  We’ll take Father’s snow knives and two of his old stone lamps.  We’ll have plenty of seal oil to burn.  You know there’s no wood out there, and it isn’t worth while hauling any.”

“Yes,” agreed Skipper Ed, “we’ll need the lamps, though I don’t like them.  I never could get used to them, and I never liked to go too far from wood.”

And so it came to pass that in the bright moonlight of Monday morning they lashed upon the two komatiks a good supply of hardtack and boiled salt pork—­the only provisions that would not freeze too hard to eat—­with tea, and sleeping bags, and numerous articles of equipment for their own use and comfort, and a day’s supply of seal meat for the dogs.