Part 24 (1/2)

And then he re devotions that Abel and Mrs Abel were doubtless then holding in the cabin He could see Abel taking the old worn Eski and the two good folks singing a hy in praise and thanks to God for histhe Eskimo version of ”Nearer My God to Thee,” and then he knelt and prayed, and felt the better for it

For a long while he lay, after his devotions were ended, recalling the kindness of his beloved foster parents But at last he, too, like Ji wind, and, exhausted with his day's work, he slept long and heavily

When Bobby awoke at last he perceived that it ilight in his snow cavern, and, listening for the wind, discovered to his satisfaction that it had ceased to blow

”Now I'll find Ji his snow knife, ”and see how he spent the night in the storm”

He removed the snow block from the entrance and cut away the accu out at once looked about him with astonished eyes On one side very near where he had been sleeping waves were breaking upon the ice, and far away beyond the waters lay the bleak and naked headland of Cape Harrigan In the east the sun was just rising, and the snow of the ice pack sparkled and glittered ondrous beauty

But Bobby saw only the open water, and the distant land, and nowhere Ji dread came into his heart The water had eaten away the ice as he slept! That was the side upon which Jione! He had no doubt Ji somewhere in that stretch of black water!

Then he ran out over the ice and a: ”Jimmy!

Jimmy! Answer me, Jimmy, and tell me you're alive! Oh, Jimmy! Tell me you're alive!”

But no Jirief, Bobby sat down upon the snow and threw his ar his head in the crook of his elboept

”It's all my fault! It's all my fault!” he moaned ”I the saone back for the whip! Oh, if I'd only hurried when Skipper Ed toldand healthy and active, and had an appetite, and the air was excessively cold The appetite began to call for food and drink, and the cold drove hi his eyes, he very wisely resolved:

”There's no good to co about Ji for myself now There's a chance the ice ot to try to keep alive as long as I can”

He had nothing to eat, no cup into which to melt ice for water, and no lamp or seal oil hich to make a fire over which to melt the ice had he possessed a cup, but he set out at a rapid pace to explore the ice field, clinging as he walked to his snow knife, the only weapon he possessed, for his rifle had been left upon the _komatik_, and in a little while he discovered that the pack was not so large as he had supposed it to be, for the heavy seas of the night before had eaten away its edges It had broken away, indeed, to a point far within the boundaries of their old _igloo_ and the place where they had hunted

”The first little bloill break the whole floe up,” he said dejectedly ”Anyhow I suppose it won't un”

But out to the southward lay a great field of ice, and it seemed not so far away An hour's observation assured Bobby that his ser field, and was gradually approaching it Late in the afternoon he caught the glint ofabove the great floe ahead, and as he watched thereat North pack!” he exclaiet on that I'll be safe froer than this, and it'll stand soood blows”

To quench his thirst he clipped particles of ice with his snow knife and sucked theht approached, he built a new night shelter frory and despondent, crawled into it to lie long and think of Abel Zachariah and Mrs Abel, and the lost happiness in the cabin which was his home; and of Skipper Ed and Jione forever, when he and Jiht of the terrible fate that awaited them; and of the adventure on the cliff, and the hundred other scrapes into which they had got and from which they had sorave on Itigailit Island, and the cairn of stones he had built upon it

”A tragedy brought edy has taken edy”

And then, after long thought:

”Skipper Ed says our destiny is God's will But God always has a purpose in His will I wonder if I've fulfilled my destiny, and what the purpose of it was Maybe it was just to be a son to Father and Mother”

He hts ran to Skipper Ed and Jimmy:

”I wonder what there is in Skipper Ed's life that he's never told us,”

he pondered ”He's always said he was a wandering sailor-man, who stopped on the coast because he liked it He never was a coht of that before! Sailors aren't educated, and he is! And whenever Jimmy or I asked him to tell about his own life before he ca else”

And then he fell asleep to dreae trees, with flowers, the like of which he had never seen, bloo the air sith their perfume