wn. Behind them clustered a group
of dirty, half-clad children.

Steve ushered us into the hut, which proved to have two rooms, the
larger about eight by ten feet. The roof was so low that none of us
could stand erect except in the centre, where it came to a peak. In the
outer room were two rough wooden benches, and on a rickety table a
dirty kerosene lamp without a chimney shed gloom rather than light. An
old stove, the sides of which were bolstered up with rocks, filled the
hut with smoke to the point of suffocation when a fire was started.
The floor and everything else in the room were innocent of soap and
water.

George made coffee, which he passed around with hardtack to everybody.
Then all but Steve and our party retired to the inner room, one of the
women standing a loose door against the aperture. Steve curled up in an
old quilt on one of the benches, while Hubbard, George and I spread a
tarpaulin on the floor and rolled in our blankets upon it.

We were up betimes the next morning after a fair night's sleep on the
floor. We again served hardtack and coffee to all, and at five o'clock
were once more on our way. A thick mantle of mist obscured the shore,
and Hubbard offered Steve a chart and compass. "Ain't got no learnin',
sir; I can't read, sir," said the young livyere. So Hubbard directed
the course in the mist while Steve steered. Later in the day the wind
freshened and blew the mist away, and at length developed into a gale.
Finally the sea rose so high that Steve thought it well to seek the
protection of a harbour, and we landed in a sheltered cove on one of
the numerous islands that strew Hamilton Inlet, where we then were--Big
Black Island, it is called.

George had arisen that morning with a lame back, and when we reached
the island he could scarcely move. The place was so barren of timber
we could not find a stick long enough to act as a centre pole for our
tent, and it was useless to try to pitch it. However, the moss, being
thick and soft, made a comfortable bed, and after we had put a mustard
plaster on George's back to relieve his lumbago, we rolled him in two
of our blankets under the lee of a bush and let him sleep. Then, as
evening came on, Hubbard and I started for a stroll along the shore.
The sun was still high in the heavens, and the temperature mildly cool.

A walk of a mile or so brought us to the cabin of one Joe Lloyd, a
livyere. Lloyd proved to be an intelligent old Englis