BUILDING 



Hospital and the church. On the whole my four 

 workmen got on very well, though they usually 

 wanted to do things in their own way, and got into 

 some amusing predicaments in consequence. I once 

 found them shaking their heads very seriously over 

 a beam that would not fit. They tried it one way, 

 and found it too long ; then they laboriously heaved 

 it round the other way, but it was still too long. 

 They had shaped and notched the ends, ready to 

 be dovetailed into place, but had forgotten to make 

 the beam the right length first. What must they 

 do ? Measure it, cut a piece off one end, and shape 

 the end again. "Ai, ai," they said, "kappe, what 

 a lot of trouble." And then I stumbled over my 

 >t great difficulty with the Eskimo language. I 

 >lled out a couple of long words, carefully compiled 

 nn the grammar book, but I really did not know 

 rhether I was saying "Measure your beams first, 

 len notch them," or "Notch your beams first and 

 icn measure them " ; and I thought it well to give 

 pantomimic demonstration, which I hope they 

 inderstood. Anyhow, we built the bridge, and it 

 >ks all right to this day. 



I was advised to get some painting done before 

 ic mosquitoes became too plentiful, so I set a 

 party of workmen to paint the hospital as soon as 

 the bridge was ready. The painting passed off 

 pretty well, excepting that the dogs regarded our 

 paint made of seal-oil and whiting, boiled together 

 as a special sort of thick soup cooked for their 

 benefit, and devoured as much of it, and as many 

 of the paint-brushes, as they could get : they even 

 licked the walls clean, as high as they could reach, 

 after the workmen had gone home. On the whole 



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