MARRIAGE 167 



leave for Little Whale River in a few days. I shall 

 have to walk about two hundred and fifty miles ; 

 the remaining three hundred and fifty will have 

 to be done with sledge and dogs." In this same 

 letter we hear for the first time of the prospect of 

 easier journeyings in the near future on account of 

 a useful gift to the Mission : "My little steamer 

 will, I trust, be put together in the coming summer. 

 I shall (D.V.) return to Moose in the beginning of 

 July, and shall, perhaps, use the steam launch in 

 taking my wife on to our own little home." 



The postscript to this letter is : " The dogs have 

 just arrived, and I start to-morrow morning early 

 on my long journey." 



It needs no words from an editorial pen to enable 

 us to read between the lines, of the patient self- 

 denial of both man and wife, who in the first year 

 of wedded happiness give up one another for long 

 periods of separation and of the faith that trusts 

 God with all that is dearest in privation and 

 danger. 



The stay at Little Whale River lasted from 

 March 18 to May 5. No details of this visit are 

 forthcoming, but the general summary is : 



" I was kept busy teaching the Eskimos. I was 

 glad to see that many of them had taken care of 

 their little books, and had continued to read them 

 during my absence in England. Others, again, were 

 as anxious as ever to hear the message of salvation, 



