“Puppies!  That’s what all the seals are here for!”

And, sure enough, lying about on the ice were a great number of little white balls, so small and white they had escaped his notice at a distance, and each white ball was a new-born seal.  That, then, was why old seals were so numerous and so fearless.

But Bobby had no time to think about this.  Hunger was crying to be satisfied, and now that food was at hand he was hungrier than ever.  As quickly as he could he dressed one of the seals, and as he had no means of cooking the meat made a satisfactory meal upon the raw flesh and blubber, after the manner of Eskimos.

This done he looked about him for a suitable place to build a shelter, and finding a good drift not far away set about his building with greater care than on the night before, and before noon time had a small but well-fashioned igloo erected with a tunnel leading to the entrance that he might better be protected from the wind.

He now skinned and dressed the remaining seals, and spreading the skins for a bed on his igloo floor felt himself very comfortably situated under the circumstances.

“Now,” said he, surveying his work, “if I only had a lamp and a kettle I could get on all right till the ice drives ashore or I’m picked up or the pack goes to pieces and I won’t need to get along any more.”

But this last thought he quickly put from him with the exclamation:  “That’s silly!  I won’t worry now till I have to.  I’ll just do my best for myself, and if the Lord wants me to live He’ll show me how to save myself, or He’ll save me.”

Then Bobby sat down to think.  The pieces of ice which he melted in his mouth in lieu of water he was convinced had a weakening effect upon him, and his mouth was becoming tender and sore from sucking them, and he preferred his meat cooked.  He had plenty of matches in his pocket, for the man who lives always in the wilderness is never without a good supply, but since he had gone adrift they had been of no use to him, without means or method of making a fire.

“I’ve got it!” said he at last, springing up.  “I’m sure it will work!”

Opening the jackknife he cut from one of the skins a large circular piece, and at regular intervals near the edge of this made small slits.  Then from the edge of a skin he cut a long, narrow thong, and proceeded to thread it through the slits.  This done he tightened the thong, puckering the edge of the circular piece of skin until it assumed the form of a shallow bowl perhaps fifteen inches wide.  This he set into a snow block in order that it might set firm and retain its shape.  This was to be his Eskimo lamp.

Now he tore a strip from his shirt, folded it to proper size, filled his lamp with oil from the blubber, drove the point of his snow knife into the side of his igloo in such manner that the side rested in a flat position on the top of the bowl, and saturating the cloth with the oil he arranged it upon the knife, taking care that it did not touch either side of the bowl.  This he lighted, and to his great delight found that his lamp was a success.