miles of drifting, piling ice which still lay between him and America.
It was the contemplation of these realities which at last led him to the
land of dreams.




CHAPTER IX

JOHNNY'S FREE-FOR-ALL


Johnny smiled as he sat before his igloo. Two signs of spring pleased
him. Some tiny icicles had formed on the cliff above him, telling of the
first thaw. An aged Chukche, toothless, and blind, had unwrapped his
long-stemmed pipe to smoke in the sunshine.

Johnny had seen the old man before and liked him. He was cheerful and
interesting to talk to.

"See that old man there?" he asked Hanada, whom he still called Iyok-ok
when speaking to him. "Communism isn't so bad for him after all."

Hanada squinted at him curiously without speaking.

"Of course, you know," said Johnny, "what these people have here is the
communal form of government, or the tribal form. Everything belongs to
the tribe. They own it in common. If I kill a white bear, a walrus or a
reindeer, it doesn't all go in my storehouse. I pass it round. It goes
to the tribe. So does every other form of wealth they have. Nothing