TUKTU and Aklak loved the summer by the shore. Yet both were impatient for the coming of the time when the herds² would move up to the Valley of the Good Spirit. The eight deer Aklak had so carefully trained had been grazing with the herd¹ all summer. The two children had kept their secret well, but, oh, how eager they were to see if the Good Spirit would choose any of their deer!
 
At last the big herd moved and as before Kutok took the two children with him to watch that the deer should not leave the valley without knowledge of the herders. When they got there, they found grazing near the camp Speedfoot, the missing deer, which Tuktu had seen chosen in the Valley of the Good Spirit. Looking at the ears, they found Kutok’s mark, but also a new mark, the mark of the Good Spirit, for it was unlike any other mark in all that region. This splendid deer and seven others were grazing near the hut, and Kutok and Aklak promptly³ fastened them, that they might not go back with the herd. For were not these the blessed deer?
 
But the herd moved on. Looking over toward the hills around the valley, the children could see the grazing deer in the distance, but they were too far away to tell one deer from another.
 
This year Aklak spent less time hunting than he had the previous year. He could think of nothing but those eight deer. “If the Good Spirit chooses all of them, how wonderful it would be! I do hope he will,” said he.
 
Tuktu hoped so, too, but she didn’t say so. She merely reminded Aklak that only one of his father’s deer had been chosen the year before.
 
As the days slipped by, Aklak was less and less certain that his deer would be chosen. Finally, he confessed to Tuktu that if the Good Spirit would just take one, he would be satisfied.
 
“He will. I know he will,” replied Tuktu.
 
One morning when their father was off hunting, Aklak proposed that they take the two pack-deer and go over to the edge of the Valley of the Good Spirit, where they could look down into it. Tuktu shook her head and there was a startled look in her big eyes. “Oh, no, Aklak,” she cried, “we mustn’t do that!”
 
“Why not?” demanded Aklak. “You went down into the valley last year. Why should you be afraid to do it again?”
 
“But I didn’............