, neglected
children of Labrador. In some way, he decided, the funds for such a
home had to be found, though he had no means then at his disposal for
the purpose. He further decided that the home must not be an
institution merely but a real home made pleasant for the boys and
girls, where they would have motherly care and sympathy, and where
they should have a school to go to like the children of our own
favoured land.

With cheerful optimism and heroic determination Doctor Grenfell set
for himself the task of establishing such a home. And in the end great
things grew out of the suffering and death of Gabriel Pomiuk. The
splendid courage and cheerfulness of the little Eskimo lad was to
result in happiness for many other little sufferers. Now, as always it
was, with Doctor Grenfell, "I can if I will,"--none of the uncertainty
of, "I will if I can." He pitched into the work of raising money to
build that children's home. He lectured, and wrote, and talked about
it in his usual enthusiastic way, and money began to come to him from
good people all over the world. At length enough was raised and the
home was built.

He had already picked up and taken into his mission family so many
boys and girls, orphans or otherwise, that were without home or
shelter, and that he could not leave behind him to suffer and die,
that he had nearly enough on his hands to populate the new building
before it was ready for them. Indeed he soon found himself almost in
the position of the "old woman that lived in a shoe," and "had so
many children she didn't know what to do." His big kind fatherly heart
would never permit him to abandon a homeless child, and so he took
them under his care, and somehow always managed to provide for them.

It was about the time of Pomiuk's death, I believe, that the first of
these children came to him. One day, when cruising north in the
_Strathcona_, he was told that a family living in an isolated and
lonely spot on the Labrador coast required the attention of a doctor.
He answered the call at once.

When he approached the bleak headland where the cabin stood, and his
vessel hove her anchor, he was quite astonished that no one came out
of the cabin to offer welcome, as is the custom with Labradormen
everywhere when vessels anchor near their homes. He and his mate were
put ashore in a boat, and as they walked up the trail to the cabin
still no one appeared and no smoke issued from the stovepipe, which,
rising th