fairly on
our homeward voyage when a storm blew us to the north and carried us up
here. Then our good brig was nipped and went to the bottom, and all the
crew were lost except myself and one man. We succeeded in leaping from
one piece of loose ice to another until we reached the solid floe and
gained the land, where we were kindly received by the Esquimaux. But
poor Wilson did not survive long. His constitution had never been
robust, and he died of consumption a week after we landed. The Esquimaux
buried him after their own fashion, and, as I afterwards found, had
buried a plate and a spoon along with him. These, with several other
articles, had been washed ashore from the wreck. Since then I have been
living the life of an Esquimau, awaiting an opportunity of escape either
by a ship making its appearance or a tribe of natives travelling south.
I soon picked up their language, and was living in comparative comfort,
when, during a sharp fight I chanced to have with a Polar bear, I fell
and broke my leg. I have lain here for many months, and have suffered
much, Fred; but, thank God, I am now almost well, and can walk a little,
though not yet without pain."

"Dear father," said Fred, "how terribly you must have felt the want of
kind hands to nurse you during those dreary months, and how lonely you
must have been!"

"Nay, boy, not quite so lonely as you think. I have learned the truth of
these words, 'I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee'--'Call upon Me
in the time of trouble, and I will deliver thee.' This, Fred, has been
my chief comfort during the long hours of sickness."

Captain Ellice drew forth a soiled pocket Bible from his breast as he
spoke.

"It was your beloved mother's, Fred, and is the only thing I brought
with me from the wreck; but it was the only thing in the brig I would
not have exchanged for anything else on earth. Blessed Bible! It tells
of Him whose goodness I once, in my ignorance, thought I knew, but whose
love I have since been taught 'passeth knowledge.' It has been a
glorious sun to me, which has never set in all the course of this long
Arctic night. It has been a companion in my solitude, a comfort in my
sorrows, and even now is an increase to my joy; for it tells me that if
I commit my way unto the Lord, he will bring it to pass, and already I
see the beginning of the end fulfilled."

Fred's eyes filled with tears as his father spoke; but he remained
silent, for he knew that of late h