The Home I Found in Alaska 



arrivals, whose business none seemed to know, was 

 compelled to sleep in the carpenter-shop, paid me a 

 good-Samaritan visit and after a few explanatory 

 words on my glacier and forest studies, with fine 

 hospitality offered me a room and a place at his table. 

 Here I found a real home, with freedom to go on all 

 sorts of excursions as opportunity offered. Annie 

 Vanderbilt, a little doctor of divinity two years old, 

 ruled the household with love sermons and kept it 

 warm. 



Mr. Vanderbilt introduced me to prospectors and 

 traders and some of the most influential of the Indians. 

 I visited the mission school and the home for Indian 

 girls kept by Mrs. MacFarland, and made short ex- 

 cursions to the nearby forests and streams, and 

 studied the rate of growth of the different species of 

 trees and their age, counting the annual rings on 

 stumps in the large clearings made by the military 

 when the fort was occupied, causing wondering specu- 

 lation among the Wrangell folk, as was reported by 

 Mr. Vanderbilt. 



"What can the fellow be up to?" they inquired. 

 "He seems to spend most of his time among stumps 

 and weeds. I saw him the other day on his knees, 

 looking at a stump as if he expected to find gold in it. 

 He seems to have no serious object whatever." 



One night when a heavy rainstorm was blowing I 

 unwittingly caused a lot of wondering excitement 

 among the whites as well as the superstitious Indians. 

 Being anxious to see how the Alaska trees behave in 

 storms and hear the songs they sing, I stole quietly 



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