Summary

The third chapter is titled “Mother Waters and Brother Whales.” Leif is barely alive for a couple of days. He sleeps in the canoe, floating on the current. During one of the brief awake moments, he knows that Little Carl is dead. He can do nothing for either of them. Whales shove at the canoe, playing. Finally, a whale mother shoves the canoe onto the shore and chases the youngsters away to keep them from becoming stuck on the shoreline. The men had taken time to make the canoe beautiful, including a bow in the graceful shape of a head. When Leif wakes after being unconscious and sick for a couple of days, the interior of the canoe is “something out of a grotesque nightmare” (31). Little Carl's body is covered in gore and completely stiff. Leif is...