Part 17 (1/2)

But when February cah to render it possible for thee with safety

Living noas from hand to mouth Each day they must hunt for what they would eat that day Grouse and rabbits were the game upon which they usually relied, but Fate had cast this as one of those years when the rabbits disappear from the land as it is said they do every nine years

Be that as it may, not one was killed that winter and not a track was seen For thereat a risk If they went and failed to find seals and were overtaken by a storm they would perish

This was the condition of affairs when Bobby and Jians, the white grouse of the North Not far aas a barren hill whose top was kept clean swept of snow by the winds, and up this hill they clians are found in places like this, feeding upon the frozento the rocks

Bobby was in advance, and froreat expanse of snow reaching away over the endless rolling country to the ard And looking, he discovered in the distance a dark,down another hillside For a moment he was speechless with joy, but it was for only a moment, and then he shouted:

”_Tuktu! Tuktu! Tuktu!_” (Caribou, or reindeer)

Bobby's excited cry brought Jimmy up on a run, and when he looked and saw, he, too, shouted, and was no less excited than Bobby

”Caribou! The caribou are coh to send them back on a run for Abel and Skipper Ed and their rifles and all the ammunition they could muster, and then all four turned back to reat herd, in a far-reaching, endless mass, thousands upon thousands of the directly for the hill where the four eager hunters waited

At length the mass reached thehter, and when they were through more than a hundred caribou lay stretched upon the snow, and still the caribou came

The period of starvation was at an end Comfort and plenty had appeared at their very door

The dogs were harnessed, and asfood were hauled down, some to Abel Zachariah's cabin and so Abel set out to the mission station and Skipper Ed to Abraha people come and help themselves and feast, and in the end not a caribou of all those that were killed asted

And so it was that the Alhty looked after these children of His, and so He cares for His children even in the astes of Labrador

”Good luck! Good luck at last!” said Skipper Ed

CHAPTER XIX

OFF TO THE ”SENA”

And so it was that the famine ended There was small variety for the table, to be sure, but there was always plenty of good venison, varied with ptarain a porcupine And after all they were able to go to the ice edge on the winter seal hunt, and a profitable hunt it proved

Thus the years passed, and thus they were filled with ups and downs and ood fun, too, to flavor them, as years are bound to be in that land of stern and active existence

But there was always time for study, and when Bobby was in his sixteenth year he and Ji read Caesar and Cicero and Xenophon, and they were delving into Virgil and the Iliad Under Skipper Ed's tutorshi+p Bobby had advanced as far in his studies as e in civilization, who have all the advantages of the best schools And Skipper Ed was proud of his progress, and proud of Jiress too, as indeed he had reason to be, for neither of theards

Their hearts were clean and their vision was clear Their vieas not cut off or circumscribed by the frivolous and ofttimes vicious amusements that stand as a wall around life's outlook in the town Their view and their hope were as wide as the wilderness and the sea, rugged and stern but hty and majestic and li God to the, husky lad He could drive the dog team as well as Abel He had already killed many seals, and he was an excellent hunter for his years To Abel Zachariah and Mrs Abel he was a dutiful, affectionate son They, too, were proud of him, and looked upon him as the finest lad in the whole land, and Abel boasted that when he grew to be a man he would be the finest hunter on the coast