144 THE WORLD OF ICE.

“ Now, look you, Mr. Meetuck, av ye do that again
yell better don’t, let me tell ye. Sure the back o’
me’s brack entirely,” said O’Riley, as he re-arranged
himself with a look of comfort that belied his words.
“Och, there ye go again,” he cried, as the sledge sud-
denly fell about six inches from a higher level to a
lower, where the floe had cracked, causing the teeth
of the whole party to come together with a snap. “A
man durs’n’t spake for fear o’ bitin’ his tongue off.”

“No fee,” said Meetuck, looking over his shoulder
with a broader smirk.

“ No fee, ye lump of pork! it’s a double fee Il
have to pay the dacter an ye go on like that.”

No fee was Meetuck’s best attempt at the words no
fear. He had picked up a little English during his
brief sojourn with the sailors, and already understood
much of what was said to him; but words were as yet
few, and his manner of pronouncing them peculiar.

“Holo! look! look!” cried the Esquimau, suddenly
checking the dogs and leaping off the sledge.

“Eh! what! where?” ejaculated Fred, seizing his
musket.

“T think I see something, sir,” said West, shading
his eyes with his hand, and gazing earnestly in the
direction indicated by Meetuck.

“So do I, be the mortial,’ said O’Riley in a hoarse
whisper. “TI see the mountains and the sky, I do, as
plain as the nose on me face !”

“ Flush ! stop your nonsense, man,” said Fred. “I
see a deer, Pm certain of it.”