Bobby of the Labrador

odel is well adapted to the needs of the people and the exigencies of the climate. At one end of the cabin is an enclosed porch which serve

y consists of a single room which serves as living room, dining room, ki

ove shaped like a large box. In the lower half of this stove is the fire

en closet. In the farther end of the room are the family beds, usually built into the cabin after the fashion of ships' bunks

and Abel's cabin contained two. Guns always loaded and within reach for instant use, rest upon low overhead beams, or upon pegs against the wall. On a shelf, at some convenient pl

entered, and which, as the years passed, he

ce early in July. But soon Abel had a roaring fire in the stove, and the things in from the boat, and Mrs. A

Abel lying by his side for a little, crooning an Eskimo lullaby before she washed her dishes. And at length, when the dishes were washed, and all was made snug for the night, Abel took

vessel sailed away Skipper Ed had remained behind to cast his lot with the Eskimos. At the head of Abel's bay and a mile from Abel's home, he took up the life of hunter and

shing schooner that sailed regularly each summer to this part of the Labrador coast, and because there was no one at home to care for him after his mother's death, Jimmy always a

Ed, after the manner of the Coast, rowed his boat alongside and climbed aboard, to hear such scraps of news from the outside world as the sailors might bring, and to enjoy their company for an hour.

alone in the world I know, but by the mercy of God you'll forget your trouble, for

ain of the schooner and inquired

aid the Captain, "and the best pr

er Ed. "I'll give the lad a good home, and teac

, and wonderful glad I'll be too that the

r Ed return

you'll do. How'd you like to be my partner? Look me over now,

ically, through tear-stain

nting partners. Can't we splice up a partnership? Share and share alike, you know-you have as much as I, and I have as much as you, and we'll take the fair winds and

r," agre

Now we're friends to each other, whatever falls, good voyages and poo

ed was half Jimmy's, under their partnership agreement, and the next day the schooner sailed away and left them. And with the passing weeks, Time, as Skipper Ed had predicted,

bors than Abraham Moses, an Eskimo ten miles to the southward, and the people of the Moravian Mission and Eskimo settlement at Nain, twenty miles to the nort

by, Skipper Ed and Jimmy walked over to welcome their neighbors home, and to discuss with them t

sticks from which he was to build Bobby's li

unae

er Ed's hand and then Jimmy's hand and laughing with pleasur

d. He and Skipper Ed, indeed, always conversed in Eskimo, and Jimmy, though he usually spoke his na

nd glad to know you are back. We were

g to surprise you," and Abel, laughing

"You've got a new boat. I saw it as w

that," laughed Abel. "It's in

the delighted Ji

door open he led them into the cabin, where Mrs. Abel overwhel

glish. "Now wherever did they get him?" He took Bobb

admitted, respectful

w! Where did you live

apa and

, may your

by,

your papa

my papa

is your p

surprise that all the

ement that "Uncle Robert took me for a nice ride in

uestioned him at length, after Abel and Mrs. Abel had told how they found him that August morning. But Abel and Mrs. Abel, considering these things of smal

aven, directing his course from the Far Beyond, through the place where mists and storms were born. Skipper Ed in his own mind could

and workmanship were far too fine and expensive for any ordinary ship's boat, and that it was the long boat of a luxuriously a

ed, had never before been seen on the coast, and was in itself a fortune. And Skipper Ed examined it

and it will always be the boy's. He sent it with the boy from the Great Beyond, from the

for the boy, so that the boy should never be in want. God never forget

aler. He's young enough to forget the fine things he's been used to, and he'll grow up a hunter and a fisherman like the rest of us. There's better luck coming

lives fine," ventured Jimmy. "Abel's h

that. 'Tis that; and enough'

g in silence for

," said Skipper Ed, presently. "We must not let hi

r," agre

re in the world his mother and father are grieving their life out for the loss of him. It's very like the

s,

. And it was a part of the lad's destiny to be cast upo

talked to the accompaniment of lapping waves upon

e cabin of an Eskimo. And he thrilled his little partner with vivid descriptions of great cities where people were so numerous they jostled one another, and did not know each other's names; of rushing, shrieking locomotives;

great wilderness, and looked out over the bay; and at the porch door Skipper Ed paused, and

he sea-the land I came from and the land Bobby came from-and the land yo

nd one for Abel when he came to see them-and a rocker for Mrs. Abel when she called; all home-made and upholstered in buckskin. And there were four straight-backed dining chairs, and against the wall some shelves well filled with books, as well as many other conveniences and co

pane, and when supper was eaten and the table cleared, and the two drew their armchairs up before the fire, it was very cozy sitting there and listening to the howling storm outside and the roaring fi

tell me

hat kind of a story?

out there in the country Bobby

s, gazing at the flickering light through a crack in the stove door, whi

t was a beautiful green lawn, over which were scattered trees and bushes that bore flowers, and behind the house was a large garden where delicious fruit

mes of the boys?"

been their real names," explained Skipper Ed. "Tom and Bi

're fine names, and

nd went to school together, until Tom went to college. When they got into mischief together Tom, somehow, usually managed to escape

my. "'Tweren't honest for Tom to

e dishonest, I'm sur

t honest," in

he lads saw little of each other. Tom was a brilliant fellow, and everyone liked him. He had a host of friends among the students. Bill, on

s never a month, however, that Tom did not go to Bill and borrow some of his, and even then Tom was always in debt. Bill knew it was the gay company Tom

inveterate gambler, and had lost his money at cards,

pt for them, and whenever the people who keep money there need any, they come and get what they need. When Tom left college he was taken into the bank, and before Bil

e bank, which he did a few months after his re

a shortage. That is, there was not as much money in the bank as there should have been. The shortage lay between the two brothers. Tom, in terrible distress, admitted to

what stocks are, but I'll

t home, about two months old. Bill loved his br

her, and I'm going to stand by you now. If the loss is laid to you it will ruin not only your life bu

t you do that! It's too much

t I'm only one. If it's laid on you, three lives will be ruined. Just

father, who had been sent for by the examiner, arrived at the

ttle sister-I forgot to tell you the boys had a little sister, who was ten years old at that time-nearly broke their hearts at his going. But his father was very harsh, and told him if he ever came back he would have him arrest

ttle sister's na

said Skipper Ed. "

l ever g

never we

did h

a country much like this where we live. He liked the wild country, where he could hunt and fish, and where the peo

d near us. I don't think I'd like to live in a place li

are better here than where

the fishin' and huntin' isn'

Lord's will, and our destiny, Partner, is to live here and be as hap

ved, and the two partners went to bed to be lull