THE BIG CANOE

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skins before the entrance hole and crawled inside.
He was home at last, home in his father’s house!
Swiftly he stepped to the edge of the upper level and
looked down upon the family of the chief, forty or
fifty in number, including relatives and slaves, eating
their evening meal beside the roaring fire on the
hearth below. He could see his mother, his father, his
brother Kinna.

Unobserved, he stood there silent for a moment,
drinking in all the details of the familiar scene—the
well-remembered hubbub, the fragrant smell of meat
and fish. Food! Faint with hunger, Quahl leaned
against the massive carved house pole that supported