DANIEL AS COOK 



and set it on the fire. In a quarter of an hour or so 

 Daniel was doling the boiling stuff into tin mugs, 

 and we were stirring the molasses in to suit our own 

 fancy. I enjoyed my lunch, for anything hot is 

 welcome on a Labrador journey. I have had too 

 many drinks of icy water, or lukewarm tea from a 

 stone jar carefully wrapped in skins, not to appreciate 

 Daniel's tea. Aye, one might fare worse ; and well 

 for the traveller if he has a thoughtful man in the 

 boat, with a kettle and a heap of stones. 



Towards evening we once more entered the ice- 

 field, and steered slowly between the heavy pans 

 as they edged to and fro with the gentle swell ; and 

 it dusk we made the anchor fast among the stones of 



islet at the foot of Cape Kiglapeit, and with half 

 >ur journey done we sat upon the rocks around the 

 mbbling tea-kettle, and sang our evening hymn. 

 The men cleared a space on the floor of the boat, 

 and spread the sail for an awning, and I laid me 

 down in my sealskin sleeping-bag and listened to 

 the lapping of the water. Before morning the 

 lapping had ceased : the water was frozen round the 

 boat, even on a July night. 



These Eskimos are a hardy folk. I found my 

 five boatmen sleeping on a patch of moss among 

 the rocks, snoring contentedly in the cold air without 

 so much as a blanket among them ; and they woke 

 in the morning fresh and bright, and while I was 

 talking to Daniel over his breakfast cookery I spied 

 them scanning the ice-field from the highest point 

 of our island. 



It was a beautiful spring morning, and the men 

 sang and laughed as they pushed the boat among the 

 ice. Daniel was in his element ; he skipped from 



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