226 THE WORLD OF ICE.

placed his hands on their heads, and looked up at the
audience with a benignant smile, and the curtain fell
amid rapturous cheers.

In this play it seemed somewhat curious and un-
accountable that Whackinta forgot to inquire for her
demolished baby, and appeared to feel no anxiety
whatever about it. It was also left a matter of un-
certainty whether Ben Bolt and his Esquimau bride
returned to live happily during the remainder of their
lives in England, or took up their permanent abode
with Blunderbore. But it is not our province to criti-
cise; we merely chronicle events as they occurred.

The entertainments were to conclude with a horn-
pipe from Mivins; but just as that elastic individual
had completed the first of a series of complicated
evolutions, and was about to commence the second, a
vociferous barking of the dogs was heard outside,
accompanied by the sound of human voices. The
benches were deserted in a moment, and the men
rushed upon deck, catching up muskets and cut-
lasses, which always stood in readiness, as they went.
The sounds proceeded from a party of about twenty
Esquimaux who had been sent from the camp with
the stolen property, and with a humble request that
the offence might be forgiven, and their chief and his
wife returned to them. They were all unarmed; and
the sincerity of their repentance was further attested
by the fact that they brought back, not only the
hatchet and telescope, bu’ a large assortment of minor
articles that had not been missed.