e had begun to neglect God's blessed
Word, and his conscience smote him.

It were impossible here to enter minutely into the details of all that
Captain Ellice related to Fred during the next few days, while they
remained together in the Esquimau village. To tell of the dangers, the
adventures, and the hair-breadth escapes that the crew of the _Pole
Star_ went through before the vessel finally went down, would require a
whole volume. We must pass it all over, and also the account of the few
days that followed, during which sundry walruses were captured, and
return to the _Dolphin_, to which Captain Ellice had been conveyed on
the sledge, carefully wrapped up in deer-skins, and tended by Fred.

A party of the Esquimaux accompanied them, and as a number of the
natives from the other village had returned with Saunders and his men to
the ship, the scene she presented, when all parties were united, was
exceedingly curious and animated.

The Esquimaux soon built quite a little town of snow-huts all round the
_Dolphin_, and the noise of traffic and intercourse was peculiarly
refreshing to the ears of those who had long been accustomed to the
death-like stillness of an Arctic winter. The beneficial effect of the
change on men and dogs was instantaneous. Their spirits rose at once,
and this, with the ample supply of fresh meat that had been procured,
soon began to drive scurvy away.

There was one dark spot, however, in this otherwise pleasant scene--one
impending event that cast a gloom over all. In his narrow berth in the
cabin Joseph West lay dying. Scurvy had acted more rapidly on his
delicate frame than had been expected. Despite Tom Singleton's utmost
efforts and skill, the fell disease gained the mastery, and it soon
became evident that this hearty and excellent man was to be taken away
from them.

During the last days of his illness, Captain Ellice was his greatest
comfort and his constant companion. He read the Bible to him, and when
doubts and fears arose, as they sometimes did, he pointed him to Jesus,
and spoke of that love from which nothing could separate him.

It was on Christmas day that West died.

"O sir," said he to Captain Ellice just an hour before he breathed his
last, "how much I regret the time that I have lost! How I wish now that
I had devoted more of my precious time to the study of the Word and to
prayer! How many opportunities of speaking a word for Jesus I have
neglected. Once, everything se