u 

 DANIEL 



are wont to say about travelling " Ajorkok " (it cannot 

 be done). 



But the boatmen had very little to say about their 

 trip ; all they wanted was that I should find a fifth 

 man, so that they might rest by turns from the 

 rowing " Okumaidlarpok-illa " (very hard work). 

 So I surveyed the village in my mind's eye, search- 

 ing for a likely boatman among the few who had not 

 gone to the seal-hunt. And I thought of Daniel. 



I knew Daniel as a good and handy workman, so 

 I sent for him. Soon he came shyly in a short, 

 square man with a broad back and muscular limbs, 

 and, above all, a willing, good-natured face. He 

 seemed to have discarded his characteristic " dicky," 

 and was in his summer costume of an ancient jersey, 

 left him, no doubt, by some fisherman from New- 

 foundland ; and he stood waiting, with the expectant 

 air that he always wore when there was work to be 

 done. 



" Are you ready to start for Nain at six o'clock 

 to-morrow morning ? " 



" Yes," said Daniel, without a moment's hesita- 



I tion, and no more perturbed than if I had asked him 



to do one of the everyday things at which he is so 



; handy. " Ahaila," he repeated, and turned and went 



home. 



When I walked down the jetty in the morning 

 the four Nain men were at their places : the tallest, 

 chosen captain by his mates, was in the bows with 

 a pole, scrutinising the ice-field ; the others were 

 leaning over their oars, smoking and chatting and 

 exchanging gossip with the people who had gathered 

 to see us off. 



Stroke-oar was vacant ; but even as I looked 



193 N 



i 



