wn the front, like that in a shirtwaist, and it will be all
right."

"The back can be taken out in the placket," and Ricka folded and lapped
the cloth on the little child's shoulders, and then we called Miss E.
from the kitchen. After making a few suggestions in a very conservative
way, as if they did not come readily because the garment was just about
right; she left the room hastily, saying her bread would burn in the
oven; and I thought I heard her giggling with Miss L. in Swedish until
she ran away out into the woodshed, ostensibly for an armful of wood;
though if her bread were already burning I wondered what she wanted of
more fire.

I did not blame her; I laughed too. The little child looked exceedingly
funny as she stood there in that wonderful garment, with black eyes
shining like beads, and face perfectly unsmiling, as she nearly always
looks, wondering why it was we were laughing.

October twenty-fourth the boys worked all day at making the house more
comfortable for winter, nailing tar paper upon the north side, where
some clapboards were missing, putting on storm or double windows outside
of the others, and filling the cracks with putty. A couple of the boys
also worked at hauling supplies of apples and potatoes from the
warehouse by dog-team, putting the eatables into the cellar under the
kitchen, which was well packed in with hay. This cellar was a rude one,
and in summer frequently filled with water from the surface and the hill
above the house, making it not altogether wholesome at times, but by
management, it was still being used for some things, and of course, in
cold weather, it made no difference, for everything was solidly frozen.

Snow enough had fallen by this time, a little coming quietly down every
few hours, to make fair roads for the sleds, the ground being quite
hard; while Fish River and adjoining creeks were fast freezing over, as
were also the waters of the bay.

In the evening Mr. H. came in, and we all gathered in the sitting room,
some sewing, some mending, but all chatting pleasantly. The missionary
had just been informed, he told us, of a gold strike on the Kuskokquim
River, some one having only recently returned from St. Michael, and
brought the report. From that place men were leaving for the new
diggings each day, and it might or might not prove a bona fide strike.
With reindeer, on a good winter trail, this distance would not be a
formidable trip, Mr. H. told us.

This was