rustling sound of
celestial harmony which some Arctic travellers have affirmed they have
heard, and which it seemed to me so evident that we ought to hear. But
although for years I have watched and listened, amidst the death
stillness of these snowy wastes, no sounds have I ever heard. Amidst
all their flashing and changing glories these resplendent beauties ever
seemed to me as voiceless as the stars above them.

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When spring arrived, and with its open water came our first boats, we
brought out from Red River a quantity of building material and two
experienced carpenters. Then actively went on the work of building a
Mission House, and also a large school-house, which for a time was to
serve as a church also. We called it "the Tabernacle," and for a good
while it served its double purpose admirably.

Leaving the carpenters and Indians at work, I went into the then small
village of Winnipeg for Mrs Young and our two little children, who were
now returning from Ontario, where they had remained among friends, until
I, who had so long preceded them, should have some kind of a habitation
prepared for them in the wilderness. For weeks we had to live in my
little twelve-by-twelve log-cabin. It was all right in cold or dry
weather, but as its construction was peculiar, it failed us most
signally in times of rain and wet. The roof was made of poplar logs,
laid up against the roof pole, and then covered very thickly with clay.
When this hardened and dried, it was a capital roof against the cold;
but when incessant rains softened it, and the mud in great pieces fell
through upon bed, or table, or stove, or floor, it was not luxurious or
even comfortable living. One morning we found that during the night a
mass, weighing over five pounds, had fallen at the feet of our youngest
child, as she, unconscious of danger, slept in a little bed near us.
However, after a while, we got into our new house, and great were our
rejoicings to find ourselves comfortably settled, and ready for
undivided attention to the blessed work of evangelisation.

While there was a measure of prosperity, yet the Mission did not advance
as rapidly as I had hoped it would. My hopes had been that the surplus
population at Norway House would have settled there, and that many from
the interior directly east would, as they had stated, come out and help
to build up the Mission.

Opp