, and sat for two hours, and until darkness settled,
smoking and ruminating. He did not know yet the full history of the
accident. He only knew that Jimmy had in some manner got into the water,
was overcome by the icy bath and was perishing when Bobby called, and
that Bobby by quick thought and quick action had saved his young
partner.

"They're both as tough as nuts or they never would have come out of
that dip so well," he said to himself. "Bobby's a hero, and as unselfish
as the day is long.

"I wonder what he'd have been if he'd never gone adrift and had never
come to this rugged land. I wonder if his rich parents, or the luxuries
and frivolities of civilization, would have spoiled him, and made him
grow up into a selfish, cowardly, and perhaps dissipated, weakling? I
wonder if it's the rugged country and the rugged, hard life he lives,
that have given him a rugged, noble heart, or whether he'd have had it
anyway?

"It's God's mystery. God holds our destiny in His hands, and our destiny
is His will. Perhaps He sent the lad here to mould his character upon
the plan of the great wide wilderness and boundless sea, and to fit him
for some noble part that he is to play some time in life."

Skipper Ed knocked the ashes from his pipe.

"Perhaps after all," he mused, "my life here has not been wasted.
Perhaps my part in life was to teach these boys and help to broaden
their life. Perhaps that was the reason I drifted here and remained
here. Every misfortune and every sorrow is just a stepping stone to
something higher and better."

"Skipper!" Bobby was awake and Skipper Ed's musings were at an end.

"Yes, son." He called Bobby "son" sometimes, as a special mark of
affection.

"Did you find the _netsek_ and mittens?"

"Yes, you practical young scamp."

"That's good," said Bobby, "for I couldn't hunt tomorrow without them."

"Hunt tomorrow!" exclaimed Skipper Ed. "Is that the first thing you
think of when you wake up? I'm not sure I'll let you hunt tomorrow. I
may keep you in your sleeping bag."

"I'm all right, Skipper," declared Bobby, "I'm going to get out of my
bag right now. I'm so hungry I'll be eating it if I don't."

"Stay where you are!" commanded Skipper Ed. "I'll feed you right there.
I have some fresh seal meat all cooked, and I'll make tea."

"Is Jimmy asleep, and is he all right?"

"Yes, he's sleeping, and I've no doubt he'll be all right in a day or
two."

"Skipper," said Bobby, as Skipper