AND KAYAK 19 



on to tell us how only the night before he had 

 told two men to make ready to tramp over the 

 hills to Hebron, seventy miles away, to ask 

 for news and stores. 



No wonder he was pleased : all his worries 

 had vanished away in a moment. He had been 

 anxious, poor man, about the winter. " Our 

 butter was nearly done," he said, " and we 

 had no fresh vegetables or eggs " for Ramah 

 is too cold for gardening, and as for hens, well, 

 the poor things get such rheumatism in their 

 legs that it is not possible to keep them through 

 all the bitter cold of the winter. " We had 

 flour," said the missionary, " and I think the 

 Eskimos could have managed, for they eat 

 seal-meat and dried fish ; but I do not know 

 how the children would have gone on, for we 

 had not much tinned milk." And so he was as 

 pleased as could be, for here was the Harmony 

 with the stores ; and not only that, for the 

 captain was handing over a great bulging 

 bag of letters and papers and parcels, and so 

 once more the lonely little settlement of Ramah 

 had news from home. There was no doubt 

 that the Eskimos themselves were as pleased 

 to see the ship as the missionary was : they 

 had been banging away with their guns since 

 daybreak, and now we could see flags on the 

 houses in honour of the day, and the people 



