The skins and boots, besides walrus and seal flesh, which the crew were enabled to barter at this time, were of the utmost importance, for their fresh provisions had begun to get low, and their boots were almost worn out, so that the scene of barter was exceedingly animated. Davie Summers and his master, Mivins, shone conspicuous as bargain makers, and carried to their respective bunks a large assortment of native articles. Fred, and Tom Singleton, too, were extremely successful, and in a few hours a sufficient amount of skins were bartered to provide them with clothing for the winter. The quantity of fresh meat obtained, however, was not enough to last them a week, for the Esquimaux lived from hand to mouth, and the crew felt that they must depend on their own exertions in the hunt for this indispensable article of food, without which they could not hope to escape the assaults of the sailors' dread enemy, scurvy. Meetuck's duties were not light upon this occasion, as you may suppose. "Arrah! then, _don't_ ye onderstand me?" cried O'Riley, in an excited tone, to a particularly obtuse and remarkably fat Esquimau, who was about as sharp at a bargain as himself.--"Hallo! Meetuck, come here, do, and tell this pork-faced spalpeen what I'm sayin'. Sure I couldn't spake plainer av I wos to try." "I'll never get this fellow to understand," said Fred.--"Meetuck, my boy, come here and explain to him." "Ho! Meetuck," shouted Peter Grim, "give this old blockhead a taste o' your lingo, I never met his match for stupidity." "I do believe that this rascal wants the 'ole of this ball o' twine for the tusk of a sea-'oss.--Meetuck! w'ere's Meetuck? I say, give us a 'and 'ere, like a good fellow," cried Mivins; but Mivins cried in vain, for at that moment Saunders had violently collared the interpreter and dragged him towards an old Esquimau woman, whose knowledge of Scotch had not proved sufficient to enable her to understand the energetically-expressed words of the second mate. During all this time the stars had been twinkling brightly in the sky, and the aurora shed a clear light upon the scene, while the air was still calm and cold; but a cloud or two now began to darken the horizon to the north-east, and a puff of wind blew occasionally over the icy plain, and struck with such chilling influence on the frames of the traffickers, that with one consent they closed their business for that day, and the Esquimaux prepared to return to their snow village, which was about ten miles to the southward, and which village had been erected by them only three days previous to their discovery of the ship.