months he stayed on the beaches, and so his temper was generally bad.
Matkah knew better than to answer back. She looked round and cooed: How
thoughtful of you. You ve taken the old place again.
I should think I had, said Sea Catch. Look at me!
He was scratched and bleeding in twenty places; one eye was almost out,
and his sides were torn to ribbons.
Oh, you men, you men! Matkah said, fanning herself with her hind
flipper. Why can t you be sensible and settle your places quietly? You
look as though you had been fighting with the Killer Whale.
I haven t been doing anything but fight since the middle of May. The
beach is disgracefully crowded this season. I ve met at least a hundred
seals from Lukannon Beach, house hunting. Why can t people stay where
they belong?
I ve often thought we should be much happier if we hauled out at Otter
Island instead of this crowded place, said Matkah.
Bah! Only the holluschickie go to Otter Island. If we went there they
would say we were afraid. We must preserve appearances, my dear.
Sea Catch sunk his head proudly between his fat shoulders and pretended
to go to sleep for a few minutes, but all the time he was keeping a
sharp lookout for a fight. Now that all the seals and their wives were
on the land, you could hear their clamor miles out to sea above the
loudest gales. At the lowest counting there were over a million seals
on the beach--old seals, mother seals, tiny babies, and holluschickie,
fighting, scuffling, bleating, crawling, and playing together--going
down to the sea and coming up from it in gangs and regiments, lying
over every foot of ground as far as the eye could reach, and skirmishing
about in brigades through the fog. It is nearly always foggy at
Novastoshnah, except when the sun comes out and makes everything look
all pearly and rainbow-colored for a little while.
Kotick, Matkah s baby, was born in the middle of that confusion, and he
was all head and shoulders, with pale, watery blue eyes, as tiny seals
must be, but there was something about his coat that made his mother
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