ERNESTINA 1 29 



playing the finished seam with a sort of subdued 

 triumph. That was on one of her best days. 



Poor soul ! She has her bad days too days when 

 she can only lie in bed, when the pain is bad, and 

 all the little occupations must be put on one side ; 

 days which only lifelong sufferers can understand ; 

 days which make those who do not suffer marvel at 

 the patience and refinement and beauty of character 

 which suffering so often brings. 



Poor Ernestina ! I believe she makes nearly all 

 her own clothes ; and though her skirts are of patch- 

 work, she manages to be wonderfully neat. Often 

 on Saturdays you might see her washing her long- 

 tailed Sunday "sillapak." I must use the Eskimo 

 word and call it " sillapak," for there is no English 

 word that describes it. "Sillapak" means "the 

 outside thing of all" ; it is made of white calico, 

 with a short tail in front and a long tail behind. 



Ernestina washes her sillapak in the real Eskimo 

 way. She takes it to the brook and dips it in the 

 water ; next she spreads it on the rocks and soaps it 

 well ; then she folds it up, drops it into the brook 

 again, and tramples on it until she is satisfied that 

 it is clean. And so you might see Ernestina on a 

 Saturday afternoon in the short summer, standing 

 in the middle of the brook and trampling. 



The sillapak has a big hood in which the mother 

 carries her baby ; and sometimes I have seen 

 Ernestina acting nursemaid, shuffling along with a 

 big bundle on her back somebody's little brother 

 fast asleep in her hood ! 



Poor Ernestina ! Her friends told her about a 



