Polar Bears Past Bedtime (3 page)
The seal hunter nodded. Then he left the window. He returned a moment later with two small parkas like his own. They were made of heavy dark skins with fur-trimmed hoods.
He passed one to Jack and one to Annie.
“Thanks!” said Jack and Annie.
They put the parkas on.
“Hooray!” said Annie. “It's warm!”
“Yeah,” said Jack. “They're made of sealskin.”
“Poor seals,” said Annie.
“Don't think about it,” said Jack. He pulled his hood up. His head and upper body were very snug now. Only his legs, hands, and feet were still freezing.
“Oh, thanks!” said Annie.
Jack looked up. The seal hunter was giving Annie a pair of fur pants. Then he handed a pair to Jack.
“Thanks,” said Jack. He quickly pulled the pants on over his pajamas.
Next the seal hunter gave each of them a pair of fur boots and mittens.
Jack took off his sneakers and pulled on the boots. He wiggled his frozen fingers into the warm mittens.
“I have a quick question,” Jack said to the seal hunter. “Do you know the answer to this riddle?”
He opened his notebook and read:
I cover what's real
and hide what's true.
But sometimes I bring out
the courage in you.
What am I?
The seal hunter shook his head.
“Come,” he said to Jack and Annie. Then he disappeared from the window.
“What about those wolves out there?” Jack called.
But the seal hunter didn't answer.
Jack grabbed the Arctic book and looked for a picture of the seal hunter.
When Jack found the picture, he smiled. The seal hunter was standing beside a dogsled.
Jack read:
In cold weather, the seal hunter travels by dogsled. Siberian Huskies often howl like wolves. A lead dog controls the others. The sled's runners are sometimes made of frozen fish rolled up in sealskin.
“Hey, Annie, they're not wolves,” said Jack. “They'reâ” He looked up.
Annie was gone.
Jack threw the book and notebook into his pack. But he was so fat in his furry clothes that the backpack wouldn't fit. Jack loosened the shoulder straps and tried to put the backpack on again. It fit.
Jack looked at the small window. That would be a tight fit, too. He went out headfirst and barely squeezed through.
Jack fell onto the snowy ground. The snow was still drifting down. The air was misty white.
Jack heard barking and howling. He moved carefully toward the noise.
At first, he couldn't see the dogsled. But when he got closer, he counted nine Siberian Huskies. They had thick fur, big heads, and pointy ears.
The lead dog barked at him.
Jack stopped.
“He's telling you to climb on!” said Annie.
She was standing on the back of the sled. The seal hunter stood next to her in the snow.
Jack jumped onto the sled next to Annie.
The seal hunter cracked a long whip. “Mush!” he shouted.
The huskies dashed off in a whirl of snow.
Above them flew the snowy owl.
The dogsled skimmed silently over the frozen tundra. The seal hunter ran alongside it. Sometimes he cracked his whip against the ice.
The snowdrifts looked like giant white sculptures as the sun slipped behind the frozen hills. Then a full orange moon rose in the sky.
The moonlight lit a small, rounded igloo in front of them. The dogs slowed, then stopped.
Jack stepped off the sled. Annie went to help unhitch the dogs. Jack took his book out and read about igloos:
The word “igloo” means “house” in the language of native Arctic people. The house is built with blocks of snow. Dry snow is good wall material because it keeps in the heat. The temperature inside an igloo can be 65 degrees warmer than the temperature outside.
Jack took out his notebook. He pulled off his mitten just long enough to write:
“Come on, Jack!” said Annie.
She and the seal hunter were waiting for him in front of the igloo. The dogs were leashed together outside.
Jack hurried to join them. The hunter pushed aside animal skins covering the entrance. They stepped inside.
A fat candle burned brightly. Shadows danced on walls of ice and snow.
Jack and Annie sat on a fur-covered platform. They watched as the seal hunter moved about.
First he lit a small stove. Then he slipped outside. He came back with a snowball and chunks of frozen meat.
He put the snowball in a pot over the stove. Then he added the meat.
“What's he making?” asked Annie.
Jack pulled out his book and found a picture of the hunter cooking. He and Annie read the words silently:
There was a time when nearly all of the Arctic people's food and clothing and tools came from Arctic animals, especially the seal. Nearly every part of the seal could be eaten. Lamps were fueled with seal fat. Clothing was made from sealskin. And knives and needles were carved from seal bones.
“He must be boiling seal meat,” said Jack.
“The poor seals,” said Annie.
The seal hunter looked up.
“They are not poor,” he said. “They help us because they know we would die without them.”
“Oh,” said Annie.
“In return, we always thank the animal spirits,” said the seal hunter.
“How do you do that?” said Jack.
“We have many special ceremonies,” said the seal hunter.
He reached under the fur-covered platform and took out two wooden masks.
“Soon there will be a ceremony to honor the spirit of the polar bear,” he said. “I carved these masks for the ceremony.”
“Polar bears?” said Annie.
“Yes,” said the hunter. “Just as the seal has given us many gifts, so has the polar bear.”
“Like what?” said Jack.
“Long ago the polar bear taught us how to live in the ice and snow,” said the seal hunter.
“
Taught
you?” said Jack. “I mean, can you give us some facts?”
The seal hunter smiled.
“Yes,” he said. “A polar bear catches a seal when the seal comes up to breathe through a hole in the ice. The oldest seal hunters watched the polar bear and learned. This is how my father taught me to hunt seal, as his father taught him.”
“That's a good fact,” said Jack.
“The very first of my people learned to make igloos from polar bears,” said the hunter. “Polar bears build snow houses by digging caves in the drifts.”
“Another good fact,” said Jack.
“Sometimes the polar bear can even teach people to fly,” said the seal hunter.
“That's an amazing fact,” said Annie.
Jack smiled. “The rest sounded like true facts,” he said. “But I know that's pretend.”
The hunter just laughed, then turned back to his cooking.
That's why he wasn't surprised to hear about the tree house
, Jack thought.
If he believes polar bears can fly, he probably would believe anything.
The seal hunter lifted the chunks of boiled seal out of his pot. He dropped them into a wooden bucket and gave it to Annie.
“Let's feed the dogs,” he said.
“Oh, boy!” said Annie. She followed the hunter outside, swinging the bucket.
Jack quickly threw his notebook and the Arctic book into his pack. He started to follow them. Then his gaze fell on the two bear masks.
He picked them up to get a better look.
Each was carved in the shape of a polar bear's face with a blunt nose and roundish ears. There were two holes for eyes and a strap to hold it on your head.
Suddenly howls split the air. The dogs were barking and growling. Annie squealed.
Are the dogs attacking her?
Jack wondered.
“Annie!”
Still holding the bear masks, Jack charged out of the igloo.
The dogs were barking wildly at two small creatures playing in the moonlight.
“Polar bear babies!” cried Annie.
One roly-poly cub leaped onto the other. Then they both rolled through the snow.
“Hi, little bears!” Annie called.
The cubs jumped up and shook themselves like wet puppies. Then they scampered toward Annie, who rushed to greet them.
“Hi, hi, hi!” she called.
“Waitâ” shouted Jack. “Where's their mother?”
He looked around for the mother bear, but she was nowhere in sight.
Maybe they're orphans
, he thought.
Jack looked back at Annie. She was wrestling with the little bears in the snow. She was laughing so hard that she couldn't stand.
Jack started laughing, too. He carefully put the bear masks into his pack. Then he ran to join Annie.
She was running with the cubs across the snowy tundra. One of them raced to her, tagged her, then raced away. Annie ran after the bear and tagged him back.
“You're it!” she said.
Jack and the other cub joined in. Soon Jack and Annie and the two cubs were all chasing each other over the moonlit snow.