164 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SEALER 



talked with us some time before he found out the deception. 

 We had so changed, he said, that he could hardly recognize us. 

 We had been through a rough changing experience. I remember 

 that I had worn no hat for two months and found it agreeable 

 to trust for protection to my shock of hair. Our bibulous friend 

 called for something to drink by way of celebration. We then 

 remembered that we had a dozen bottles of old Jamaica rum 

 which had been presented to us at Liverpool, Nova Scotia, and 

 which we intended to give to Skipper Small. Stimpson found 

 it so good that he declared people who would carry such a 

 potable for three months without touching it had no real title 

 to it. Suiting the action to the word, he pocketed two bottles, 

 climbed up the stays, and went away to his den with it ; returned 

 to repeat the process, and in six journeys lightened us of the lot. 

 When begged that he would leave at least one bottle he seemed 

 indignant at the suggestion. 



On looking back over the experiences of the Labrador expe- 

 dition, I now see that it was the most profitable journey I have 

 ever made. In after years, Hyatt, who was a yachtsman, said 

 that as we took it, it was an exceedingly dangerous expedition, 

 and that we ought not to have come back at all. It is true the 

 craft was unsea worthy ; many times we had to climb under the 

 hull when we had allowed the ship to ground with the falling 

 tide, and calk the seams as best we could. Working along the 

 harborless coast of Anticosti, we several times had a hard fight 

 for our offing when a sudden on-shore gale came up, and 

 they would come out of a clear sky. But we had a good leader, 

 who, while he was always croaking of dangers to come, was no 

 croaker when they were on us, but a great, strong man, and we 

 ourselves seemed to have no sense of danger. 



As all those who have made hard campaigns know, discom- 

 fort, such as we became accustomed to, much lessens the love 

 of life. In fact, that fancy for continuous existence is in some 

 measure the product of ease and comfort, while what we call 

 bravery is largely but merely a hard-minded state which suffer- 



