man had grown up with his environment--had inherited qualities or
weaknesses applicable to his surroundings, had breathed the air of one
planet so long that the atmosphere of another was poison to him. He had
envied others a lot which it was constitutionally impossible for him to
emulate. And he wept for his hereditary infirmities and failings. Could
a man be blamed for regretting his ancestors and cursing the fate, or
the necessity which drove them into those northern fastnesses at the
early stages of their existence? Here again the white man was to blame,
for he, in his eagerness and greed, had seized upon the cream of the
earth for himself and had driven all inferior or weaker peoples to all
the four corners of the globe. And of all the unfortunate, subordinate
races, the Eskimo was the most unfortunate, and their condition savored
of discrimination on the part of the powers that governed or ordained
things.

As our hero had only one ambition while in the north--an insane notion
to go south--he had only one ambition while in California--an
overpowering ambition to go north.

"Oh, for a mantle of snow, and a canopy of ice!" he shouted. "And, oh,
for one touch on mine of my Lola's cold, sweet cheek. Oh, for the
frozen, hopeless northland, even if its condition means the perpetual
doom and obliteration of the whole Eskimo race!"

They shipped him north as fast as steam could carry him, and from Dawson
he went on foot, becoming day by day more and more his natural self.
When he neared his igloo he found his Lola standing with outstretched
arms to welcome him even as she had mourned his departure, and he
realized for the first time that the love and companionship of one woman
is worth more than all the riches and wonders of the world put together.
They embraced each other with the grip of a vice, in the awful power of
their natures, and their affection was as genuine as the most civilized
variety. And there he threw himself on the earth and hugged the snow of
his dear northland.

Of the Sweet Young Things

Once upon a time in Ashcroft a very foolish young man married a very
foolish young lady. They were foolish in so far as they had entered a
matrimonial partnership without the preliminary requisite of love. He
married because he wanted a wife, as all good men do; she married
because she wanted a home, as all good women do. But, as we have said,
they married too hastily in their eagerness for those mere munda