AN ESKIMO BROTHER 79 



No, they thought, he is an old man ; he cannot 

 hunt or earn much of a Hving ; we are better off as 

 we are. 



Finally, Kornelius bethought himself of old Maria. 

 She was in some ways a queer old soul, and lame as 

 well, but she would be company in the house, so he 

 would ask Maria. 



On the day of the proposal Maria was working 

 in the hospital wood-room she used to help in the 

 piling of the winter's stock of firewood. She could 

 not do much, but she felt that she was earning some- 

 thing, and that was a satisfaction to her. The first 

 news I had of the coming wedding was from Maria 

 herself. She burst into my room with face aglow : 



" Doctor," she said, " the old man has fallen in 

 love with me." 



Do you want a sequel ? Well, the marriage turned 

 out quite a happy one. Maria was a cripple, but she 

 was up to all the tricks of Eskimo cookery if dry- 

 ing the meat comes under that heading and so she 

 used to make nipko for herself and her husband. 

 He, poor old man, was too feeble to go to the hunt- 

 ing any more ; his eyes were growing dim and his 

 arm had lost its cunning. In a way he was enjoying 

 a hunter's leisure, for he was relying on a sort of 

 co-operative system that is very popular among the 

 Eskimos. 



Kornelius had a net, but he was too old to use it, 

 so he lent his net to one of the younger men, and 

 the two of them shared the seals which the net 

 caught. The young man took the half as payment 

 for his trouble and handed the rest over as hire for 



