The British Are Coming

Winters used walrus-skins on his hut,' I said. ¡¡¡¡'There are the seals,' she suggested. ¡¡¡¡So next day the hunting began. I did not know how to shoot, but I proceeded to learn. And when I had expended some thirty shells for three seals, I decided that the ammunition would be exhausted before I acquired the necessary knowledge. I had used eight shells for lighting fires before I hit upon the device of banking the embers with wet moss, and there remained not over a hundred shells in the box. ¡¡¡¡'We must club the seals,' I announced, when convinced of my poor marksmanship. 'I have heard the sealers talk about clubbing them.'
¡¡¡'They are so pretty,' she objected. 'I cannot bear to think of it being done. It is so directly brutal, you know, so different from shooting them.' ¡¡¡¡'That roof must go on,' I answered grimly. 'Winter is almost here. It is our lives against theirs. It is unfortunate we haven't plenty of ammunition, but I think, anyway, that they suffer less from being clubbed than from being all shot up. Besides, I shall do the clubbing.' ¡¡¡¡'That's just it,' she began eagerly, and broke off in sudden confusion.