zA- ^i\\lK icSV^S, 1 ustmas-Time again for Louise . . . 128 EACH AND ALL. THE STORY OF AGOONACK, AND HER SAIL UPON THE ICE ISLAND, Do you remember Agoonack, the lit- tle Esquimau girl who lived through the long sunshine and the long dark- ness? I have had news of her lately. Do you want to know what it is? Then come with me once more to the cold countries, and visit our old acquaint- ances, the seals and the bears, and the chubby little girl and her baby brother. It is an April day. If we were at home, we sliould perhaps hear a blue- Dird sing. There would be swelling leat- 2 EACH AND ALL. buds on the lilac and the horse-chestnut trees, and little green tufts of grass pushing up here and there in sunny spots ; and out in the pine woods I am sure we should find May-flowers. But in the far-away cold countries there are no such pleasant signs of spring ; and yet there are some things that are very cheering to the people who live there Best of all, there is the sun, that hat come back again after the long night and gives them now a short day, just s few hours long. Then Puseymut the seal, who knows that the spring is com ing, has begun to build her curious, house. And about these seal-houses J' must tell you ; for they are almost a^^ curious and pretty as a bird's nest. You know the seals live in the water And here the water is all covered with ice, — ice as thick as you are tall, little Edith, and in some places very much thicker. And on the top of the ice there is deep, deep snow. Now, of what can the seal build her house ? THE STORY OF AGOONACK. 3 Ah ! you merry children who build snow-houses in winter know very well of what it is built. See, I will make you a picture of it, and the mother seal swimmini^ in the clejir water just below. Here is the passage-way or entry, cut thiou