DANIEL AS COOK 



" Sikkokarungnaipok-tava " (never frozen) ; but now 

 I understood how the power of the battling currents 

 gives the ice no chance to set, even in the bitter 

 cold of January. 



The men were exhausted by the time the currents 

 were bubbling half a mile behind us, and nodded 

 and grinned with appreciation when I suggested 

 supper. I decided on hot meat; but as we had 

 only one cooking utensil the tea and meat would 

 have to take turns, and Daniel chuckled as he 

 helped me to scrape the mutton out of the tin into 

 his useful kettle. We anchored at the mouth of a 

 little brook that was trickling through the melting 

 snow, and within a few minutes we were eating our 

 mutton out of our teacups while the kettle sat on 

 the fire filled with its usual cold water and tea-leaves. 

 We rinsed our cups at the rivulet, and drank the hot 

 tea thankfully ; then I took out the Bible, and the 

 men clustered round me for the evening reading. 

 I sat afterwards gazing at the lowering sky, while 

 the captain spread the sail over my sleeping-place 

 in the stern, and the others lay on the moss and 

 smoked. The captain came to me. "Storm to- 

 morrow," he said ; " you go to sleep now ; we row 

 all night " ; and without another word he called to 

 the oarsmen and hauled the anchor up from the 

 water. Good-hearted fellows ; how I admired their 

 pluck. Rather than risk delay they would toil all 

 night at the oars, because the wind was coming, 

 and to-morrow it might be impossible to travel 

 among the ice-pans. 



As I lay in the dark under the sail I could hear 

 the rhythmic creaking of the boards under the feet 

 of the captain, as he stood at my head rolling his 



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