CHAPTER XIII 



A RUN TO NAIN A CAMPING ACCIDENT A SUMMONS HOME 

 SINGING us OFF INTO THE STORM LOST ON THE MOUNTAIN 

 ON THE EDGE OF A PRECIPICE JULIUS TO THE RESCUE AN 

 UNCOMFORTABLE NIGHT. 



I SUPPOSE that all Eskimo drivers are much 

 of a muchness, and the reason why I found my 

 two men such excellent fellows was that we got so 

 used to one another. But I have never seen so good 

 a path-finder as little Johannes, and I could not help 

 thinking of him a time or two on one of the very 

 few journeys I made without him. Johannes could 

 not come ; his wife was ill, and it seemed unreason- 

 able to ask him to leave her. I think that big Julius 

 was as much concerned as I, for when I told him to 

 choose a new companion for the trip to Nain he 

 hummed and hawed, and took more than a day to 

 make a choice. Finally he came along leading his 

 cousin Kristian, a big, burly young man, and told me 

 that this was "aipara" (my other one). This was 

 Kristian's first trip as driver to a European, and he 

 evidently felt flattered ; at any rate, he worked like a 

 Trojan in spite of his reputation for laziness, and his 

 gift for managing dogs was truly marvellous. In 

 our snow house on the mountain pass Kristian 

 became reminiscent. That is one of the strangest 

 of tacks for an Eskimo to take, but I suppose the 

 unaccustomed luxury of half frozen tinned mutton 



and three parts frozen bread, washed down with tea 



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