LIZETTA 



puny, and so it came about that Lizetta was one of 

 the hospital's most frequent visitors. Bright little 

 soul, in spite of her troubles she was always cheery, 

 and used to keep the people in the waiting-room in a 

 continual state of merriment with her odd quips and 

 her lively descriptions of anything that was happen- 

 ing. She and her little troop were blessed with an 

 extra share of good looks, and made up in spirit for 

 what they lacked in bodily vigour ; in fact, a jollier 

 family you could hardly imagine, and it is no wonder 

 that we were all fond of them. This little mother 

 came running one day to pant out the startling news 

 that little Gustaf had " fallen and broken his back." 

 I ran with all haste to the hut, with my mind full of 

 dismal visions of the brightest of our little school- 

 boys moaning on a hard bed of reindeer skins, help- 

 less and crippled. But no, little Gustaf was sitting 

 on the doorstep, apparently as lively as a cricket. 

 He had fallen and bruised his back; the pain had 

 made him cry ; and his mother had used the correct 

 word under the circumstances to convey the informa- 

 tion that his back was painful. " Broken " seemed a 

 strong expression : it was the same word that she 

 would have used in talking of a box smashed up for 

 firewood; and I thought it was the cry of " Wolf" 

 when there was no wolf. One learns to understand 

 these things ; it was no wilful exaggeration, but just 

 an example of the Eskimo way of expressing things. 

 If an Eskimo has pain in any part of his body, 

 that part is, to his way of thinking, broken. And 

 similarly, if a man has a bad cough, his lungs are 

 broken, and so on. The woman who came from the 

 frozen snow-huts at Killinek to live in her brother's 

 wooden house at Okak, and who found the warmth 



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