Then he stuck his lance down. His lance touched something soft
that wiggled! Menie stood up. He was so excited that he trembled.
He knew he had found a seal hole with a live seal in the snow
house!

With all his strength he struck his lance down through the snow.
The snow house fell in and Menie fell with it, but he kept hold
of his lance. The end of the lance was buried in the snow, but it
was moving. Menie knew by this that he had stuck it into the
seal!

He lay still and kept fast hold of his lance, and pressed down on
it with all his might.

Nip and Tup were crazy with excitement. They jumped round and
barked and tried to dig a hole in the snow with their forefeet.

At last the spear stopped wiggling. Then Menie carefully dug the
snow away. There lay a little white seal! It was too young to
swim away with its mother. That was why such a small boy as Menie
had been able to kill it.

He dragged it out on the ice. He was so excited and so busy he
did not notice how near he was to the open water.


IV.

All of a sudden there was a loud cracking noise, and Menie felt
the ice moving under him! He looked back. There was a tiny strip