44 
THE TRUST. 
hospital into the air. Wc were six, all told, out of 
eighteen, who could affect to hunt, cook, or nurse. 
Meanwhile we tried to dream of commerce with the 
Esquimaux, and open water, and home. For myself, 
my thoughts had occupation enough in the question of 
our closing labors. I never lost my hope. I looked to 
the coming spring as full of responsibilities *, but I hac 
DETACHED ICE-BELT. 
bodily strength and moral tone enough to look through 
them to the end. A trust, based on experience as wel 
as on promises, buoyed me up at the worst of times. 
Call it fatalism, as you ignorantly may, there is that 
in the story of every eventful life which teaches the 
inefficiency of human means and the present control o 
a Supreme Agency. See how often relief has come at 
the moment of extremity, in forms strangely unsought, 
