deer,
that I may have venison; and Samuel is not here to catch mink and marten
and beaver and other things to exchange for flour and tea."

"What have you got, poor woman?" I said with my heart full of sorrow.

She replied, "I have got a couple of fish-nets."

"What did you do when it was too stormy to visit the nets?"

"Sometimes some of the men from the other houses visited them for me,
and would bring me the fish. Then we sometimes get some by fishing
through the ice."

"What about when it was too stormy for any one to go?"

She quietly said, "If nothing were left, we go without anything."

As I looked at her and her large family of fatherless children, and then
thought of her husband's triumphant death, and his glorious transfer to
that blest abode, where "they shall hunger no more, neither thirst any
more," and where "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes," the
contrast between the husband and father in his felicity, and the sorrow
of the widow and children in their poverty, so affected me that, to hide
my emotion and keep back my tears, I hurried out of the room, following
my loving Brother Semmens, who was, if possible, more deeply moved than
I was. We had gone into that house to pray, but we could not. There
must be tangible sympathy given ere we could look to a higher source.

My brother had reached the cariole, which was a few yards away, and I
was not far behind, when the word, "Ayumeaookemou," ("Praying master,")
arrested my hurrying steps. I turned back, and there, just outside of
the door, was Nancy. With a woman's quick intuition to read the
feelings of the heart from the face and voice, she had followed me out,
and her words, as nearly as I can recall them, were these:

"Missionary, I do not want you to feel so badly for me; it is true I am
very poor; it is true, since Samuel died, we have often been hungry and
have often suffered from the bitter cold; but, Missionary," and her face
had no trace of sorrow upon it, "you have heard me say that as Samuel
gave his heart to God, so have I given God my heart, and He Who
comforted Samuel and helped him, so that he died so happily, is my
Saviour; and where Samuel has gone, by-and-by I am going too; and that
thought makes me happy all the day long."

There came a blessed exultation into my soul, but I could find no answer
then. So I hurried on and joined my weeping brother, and shouting,
"Marchez!" to our dogs, we were soon rapidly speedi