Bobby's new bed
was finished. It was half the width of Abel's and Mrs. Abel's bed, but
it was quite as long, for Bobby was to grow tall, and to become a big
and brave hunter. And, too, for present needs it must be of ample length
to permit Mrs. Abel to lie down by Bobby's side of nights while she
crooned him to sleep with her quaint Eskimo lullabies.
Abel had expended great care in his handicraft, and derived a vast deal
of satisfaction from the result. And when Mrs. Abel fitted the bunk with
a fine feather bed which she made from the duck and goose feathers
which she had saved, and spread it with warm blankets and tucked Bobby
away in it, he, too, seemed to find it entirely to his liking, for he
went to sleep at once, and slept as soundly as he could have slept in a
bed of carved mahogany, spread with counterpanes of silk and down.
Indeed, Bobby was in a fair way of being spoiled. His indulgent foster
parents could deny him nothing. They gratified his every wish and whim,
even to the extent of tearing from its mother a little puppy dog, to the
great distress of the dumb mother, and taking it into the house for him
to play with.
Since Bobby's arrival Abel, devoting his spare moments to the task, had
carved from walrus tusks six little ivory dogs, an ivory sledge, and a
little ivory Eskimo man, to represent the driver of the miniature team,
for no dog team could be complete without a driver. Now, during the two
days' enforced leisure from out-of-door activities afforded him by the
blizzard, he put the finishing touches upon his work.
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