to
teach them to read the Word of God. Very limited indeed were our
appliances, for we were hundreds of miles from the nearest school house.
But from the camp-fire, where we had cooked our bear's meat or beaver,
I would take a burnt stick, and with it make these Syllabic Characters
on the side of a rock, and then patiently repeat them over and over
again with my school of often three generations of Indians together,
until they had some idea of them. Then I would give them the copies of
the Bible I had brought, and at the first verse of Genesis we would
begin. It paid for the hardships of the trip a thousandfold to see the
looks of joy and delight on their faces as they themselves were able to
read that wonderful verse.

By Canoe and Dog-Train--by Egerton Ryerson Young

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

SOWING AND REAPING--BEAUTIFUL INCIDENT--"HELP ME TO BE A CHRISTIAN!"--
THIRTY YEARS BETWEEN THE SOWING AND THE REAPING--SORROWING, YET
STUBBORN, INDIANS INDUCED TO YIELD BY THE EXPRESSION, "I KNOW WHERE YOUR
CHILDREN ARE!"

While in our every-day missionary life there were dark hours, and times
when our faith was severely tried, there was, on the other hand, much to
encourage us to persevere in the blessed work among these Cree Indians.

An incident that occurred to us brought up very forcibly to our minds
the couplet:

"Whate'er may die and be forgot,
Work done for God, it dieth not."

I was sitting, one pleasant day in June, in my study at Norway House,
absorbed in my work, when I was startled by a loud "Ahem!" behind me. I
quickly sprang up, and, turning round, discovered that the man who had
thus suddenly interrupted me in my thoughts was a big, stalwart Indian.
He had come into the room in that catlike way in which nearly all of the
Indians move. Their moccasined feet make no sound, and so it is quite
possible for even scores of them to come into the house unheard. Then,
as Indians have a great dislike to knocking, they generally omit it
altogether, and unceremoniously enter, as this man had done, and as
quietly as possible.

My first glance at him told me that he was an entire stranger, although
I had by this time become acquainted with some hundreds of the natives.
I shook hands with him and said a few commonplace things to him, to
which I thought he paid but little heed.

I pointed to a chair, and asked him to be seated; but, instead of doing
so, he came up close to me and said with great earnestness: "Mi