aving their one baby
to perish. It was not until next day that the little one was found,
unconscious and dying. The Bishop and Mrs. Bompas took the child into
their loving care. To the name Owindia, which means _The Weeping One_,
was added the modern Lucy May, and the little girlie twined herself
closely round the hearts of her protectors. When the time seemed ripe,
Owindia was taken back to England to school, but the wee red plant would
not flourish in that soil. She sickened and died. Hence the memorial and
the inscription we read this July day. Much history of militant energy,
much of endurance, and countless chapters of benevolence did the good
Bishop write into the history of the North before, off on the Yukon side
in 1906, "God's finger touched him and he slept."

Missionaries of the present day are not without their troubles. Mrs. Day
tells of potato-whiskey making in some illicit still back in the
mosquito-woods, the results of which she fears; and, even as we speak,
an Indian lunatic pokes his head through the palings of the
potato-patch. From far back in Fort Nelson, British Columbia, and from
Fort Liard, the Hudson's Bay men have come to make their reports to Mr.
Brabant at Simpson. They brought their wives and babies with them,
brought also a quantity of beautiful porcupine-quill work, Fort Liard
being one of the few places in the North where this art flourishes.
Tomorrow they will start back, tacking against the stream, as the
imported brides are doing before them.

To dive into the journals of the past, of which the loft above the
offices here at Simpson is full, is even more interesting than talking
with the people of the present. We take 1837, the year which saw the
accession in England of the young and well-beloved Queen, and from
these musty books unearth a running commentary of what is doing in Fort
Simpson in that year.

"_1837, January 1_. The people were brought into the Hall, and enjoyed
their meal with great appetites, being also treated to a glass of wine
and a fathom of tobacco and a pipe. Wind East."

"_1837, February 11_. Rabbits are numerous, but the ladies of the
Establishment make no great effort in snaring them."

"_1837, February 14_. Late last night arrived a woman, _Thawyase_, and a
boy, the family of the late _Thoesty_. They have all come to take refuge
here as they are starving. The woman at dusk decoyed old Jack away to
camp in the woods--and the old fellow has found a mate."