Anvik, watching his chance while the bear was repelling the dogs, drove a harpoon into the animal.

The bear savagely thrust at the lad, but the dogs leaped up and Anvik's mother drove her harpoon into the enemy.

As well as he could in the darkness, Anvik chose his opportunity, and as he had seen older Eskimos do, skillfully avoided the attacks the bear strove to make upon him, till at last he managed to drive the sharp spear to the animal's heart.
All was over at last.

The shrieks, the growls ceased, and the dead bear lay among the ruins of the igloo.
The next day Anvik stayed away from school to help build a new igloo.

His father and Tanana did not talk much, from the time when they laid the blocks of extremely hard snow in a circle till the time when the inwardly-slanting snow walls had risen to the topmost horizontal block that joined the walls.