THE SPOILERS
m weird, fantastic figures. Some people call it Northern Lights, but old Isaac assured me earnestly, toothlessly, and with the light of ancient truth, as I lay snow-blind in his lodge, that it is nrothng more remarkable than the spirit of Itika and the great white wolves."
"What a queer legend" she said. "There must be many of them in thiscountry. I feel that I am going to like the North."
"Perhaps you will," Glenister replied, " although it is not a woman's land."
"Tell me what led you out here in the first place. You are an Eastern man. You have had advantages, education-and yet you choose this. You must love the North."
" Indeed I dot It calls to a fellow in some strange way that a gentler country never could. When once you've lived the long, lazy June days that never end, and heard geese honking under a warm, sunlit midnight; or when once you've hit the trail on a winter morning so sharp and clear that the air stings your lungs, and the whole white, silent world glistens like a jewel; yes
-and when you've seen the dogs romping in harness till the sled runners ring; and the distant mountainranges come out like beautiful carvings, so close you can reach them-well, there's something in it that brings you back-that's all, no matter where you've lost yourself. It means health and equality and unrestraint. That's what I like best, I dare say-the utter unrestraint.
" When I was a school-boy, I used to gaze at the map of Alaska for hours. I'd lose myself in it. It wasn't anything but a big, blank corner in the North then, with a name, and mountains, and mystery. The word 28