CHAPTER III 



FIRST SIGHT OF LABRADOR ARRIVAL AT OKAK 



IT was in the month of August, in the year 1902, 

 that I first saw Labrador; and I shall never 

 forget the gloom that seemed to hang over the 

 desolate coast on that bleak summer morning. 



There was a chilling mist on the water, and 

 through it I could dimly see a dull and sullen 

 coast line, and hear the ponderous thud of the sea 

 as it beat, beat, beat upon the rocky wall. 



It was a dispiriting picture ; and when I went 

 ashore and saw the stunted brushwood and the dwarfed 

 and twisted trees all dripping with moisture, and met 

 the hulking sledge-dogs, bedraggled and forlorn, 

 wandering in aimless fashion among the huts, the idea 

 of desolation was complete. But the next day brought 

 a different picture. The sun shone brightly on the 

 neat white walls of the Mission church, and on the 

 moss-grown huts that strewed the hillside ; brisk, 

 black-haired little people were running to and fro, 

 bustling to help at the unloading of the ship ; there 

 was an air of life and brightness about the scene. 



I caught some of the glamour of Labrador ; I saw 

 something of the charm of this lonely land, a charm 

 that in some strange fashion makes people love it, that 

 makes old residents who have left it pine to return, 

 that makes even the casual visitor vow to come again. 

 I walked upon the hillside in the sunshine, and 



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