Part 16 (1/2)

But there they were cooped up behind a stockade, like creatures at the zoo, to aled at and poked toward as if they were some newly imported breed of monkey An Eskimo likes as little as any other human to have fun made of him

Worst of all, they lived in the white man's houses, and found the four walls instead of the ”wide and starry sky” intolerable A snow house has its own kind of stuffiness--the smell of whale-blubber and seal-oil to Eskimo nostrils is a sweet perfume To be cooped up in a bedroom, and expected to sleep on a mattress with pillows, is pure torture

While they were on the exhibition stand, in the torrid heat, they had to wear those heavy clothes of furs and skins which the ladies said looked so picturesque They kne the polar bear felt in his cage away from his ice-blocks The food the white ed for that delicious tidbit, the flipper of a seal How good the entrails of a gull, or a fox's stomach would have tasted! But the white men seemed to think that coffee, and waters, and the pies their Eskih for them Except for the warm blood of the seal, the Eskimo ordinarily has no use for a hot drink

Several of the older Eskimo wilted away like flowers, and died They were buried and forgotten; and when the dogs died they were buried and forgotten too: there was about the same lack of ceremony in the one case as in the other

But little Poh thick and thin was the joyous life of the party They worked him hard, because he amused the visitors The visitors would throw nickels and dimes into the enclosure, and as the coins flickered in the air Pomiuk would lash out at them with his thirty-five foot whip If he nicked the coin it was his Then he would laugh--a veryway off He was a jolly, friendly little soul, and he wore a smile that hardly came off even when he slept

But there came a time when even happy little Poh in the air, agile as a Russian dancer, to bring down one of those spinning coins with his whip, he fell on the boards, his hip striking a nail that stuck out

His ony

He tried to stand, for her sake, but the effort was too much for him, and he sank back in her arms, weak as a baby What was she to do? The men who ran the exhibit had not kept their promises Pomiuk was the chief bread-winner for them all The coins he had nicked with his ere most of what they had to spend

With this eon” who did not know his business, but took the money just the same He patched up poor ”Prince” Pomiuk so that the boy orse off than before

The Fair closed: the Eskimo were stranded If that had happened on a sea-beach at hohed--for they are roes--and they would have killed sea-birds with stones and o is another story God kno a few survivors of the band found pity in led back to their home at Nachoak Bay

Pomiuk's wound never healed--he could not run about, nor walk, nor even stand His mother had to carry him everywhere In Newfoundland the fishermen and the sealers, desperately poor as they were, took theave thery children

Dr Frederick Cook, creation's chael should give hiood mark in the Book of Life He made room for several of the Eski-schooners took the rest of the survivors

Iine how happy Poht of crawling back into thenoses with his father once more!

But when the mother and the child were put ashore at Nachoak Bay--they were told that the father's spirit was at play with the rest ahts In this world they would not see hiain He had been o

It was at that dark hour that Dr Grenfell came into his life

Grenfell found the poor little boy, who had earned sonaked on the rocks beside the hut The one off ”over theher crippled son to the tender hbors It was indeed a ”co” a his fellows It was deemed best to send Pomiuk south on the little hospital steamer with the Doctor The Doctor could fix hi argu”

So the next day found Po his only worldly possession--a letter froraph with it If you asked Poic smile and show you the picture, and say: ”Me love even him”

The minister rote the letter sent money for the care of the poor ”Prince” Next suhed as he said, ”Me Gabriel Poiven him the name They had made him as comfortable as possible at the Indian Harbor hospital: his own disposition made him happy He had been moved from the hospital to a near-by hoh he could run and play like the other children

But th, just as the ants of Africa will eat away a leg of furniture till it is a hollow shell, and one day the whole table or chair falls crashi+ng His strength was ebbing fast Suddenly he becah fever, and was often unconscious In a week he was dead But that little generous, courageous life was the foundation-stone of Dr Grenfell's noble orphanage at St Anthony, put up with the pennies of A-stories to s Eskiel of comfort: and this small Gabriel has left behind hies yet to be

Dr Grenfell says that on the night of his passing the heavens were aflah little Prince Pomiuk's father had come to welcoames they knew

VIII

CAPTURED BY INDIANS