ft. Presently, with the weight shifted, the ship
lay over on her starboard side and her bow rose above the water until
the crushed planking and the hole were above the water line.

The hole now exposed, Captain Kean stuffed it with sea biscuit, or
hardtack. Over this he nailed a covering of canvas. Tubs of butter
were brought up, and the canvas thoroughly and thickly buttered. This
done, a sheathing of planking was spiked on over the buttered canvas.
Then the cargo was re-shifted into place, the vessel settled back upon
an even keel, and it was found that the leak was healed. The sea
biscuit, absorbing moisture, swelled, and this together with the
canvas, butter and planking proved effectual. Captain Kean loaded his
ship with seals and took her into St. John's harbor safely with a full
cargo.

The following year the _Virginia Lake_ was again pinched by the ice,
but this time was lost. Captain Kean and his crew took refuge on the
ice floe, and were fortunately rescued by another sealer. When Captain
Kean lost his life a few years later the sealing fleet lost one of its
most successful masters. He was a fine Christian gentleman and as able
a seaman as ever trod a bridge.

But this is the life of the sealer and the fisherman of the northern
sees. Terrible storms sometimes sweep down that rugged, barren coast
and leave behind them a harvest of wrecked vessels and drowned men and
destitute families that have lost their only support.

These were the conditions that Grenfell found in Labrador, and this
was the breed of men, these hunters and trappers, fishermen and
sealers--sturdy, honest, God-fearing folk--with whom Grenfell took up
his life. He had elected to share with them the hardships of their
desolate land and the perils of their ice-choked sea. They needed him,
and to them he offered a service that was Christ-like in its breadth
and devotion.

It was a peculiar field. No ordinary man could have entered it with
hope of success. Mere ability as a physician and surgeon of wide
experience was not enough. In addition to this, success demanded that
he be a Christian gentleman with high ideals, and freedom from
bigotry. Courage, moral as well as physical, was a necessity. Only a
man who was himself a fearless and capable navigator could make the
rounds of the coast and respond promptly to the hurried and urgent
calls to widely separated patients. Constant exposure to hardship and
peril demanded a strong body and a level