AN URGENT CALL 



In the middle of the meal the drivers came in, 

 this time with serious faces, " Ajornarmat " (it 

 cannot be helped), they said; "the ice is broken. 

 Two of the Hebron people have followed the 

 missionary, and they say that there is a storm from 

 the east, and the ice was breaking behind them. To 

 travel is impossible." This was a blow ; but we had 

 a long talk over the matter, and decided at the least 

 to go in the morning and have a look at things. 

 Then we went to bed. 



Five o'clock came all too soon: I was hardly 

 warm among the blankets before thumps resounded 

 on the door, and I crawled out of bed to find the 

 drivers dressed in their sealskins, the dogs in harness, 



d the sledge standing ready for its load. 

 It was a bleak and dispiriting business, this pull- 



g on of cold clothes and boots by the lamplight ; 



t there was work ahead, and we were eager to be 

 at it ; and by the time I was dressed the sledge was 

 ready, and a crowd of people were keeping the dogs 



om running away. I thought that the men de- 



ved a good breakfast, so I called them into the 

 ouse and set them to work upon a big pannikin of 

 hot tinned mutton, with what looked like unlimited 

 bread and butter and weak tea. In an incredibly 

 short time I heard them going out, chuckling with 

 satisfaction, and muttering " Thankie, thankie," and 

 I found that they had left a clear board behind them. 

 Probably if they had been travelling for themselves 

 they would never have bothered about break- 

 fast ; a chunk of frozen seal-meat would have satis- 

 fied them ; but here was a chance not to be had 

 every day, and I think they worked all the better 

 for it. 



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