found it a difficult matter to keep
pleasantly and profitably employed during the long winter months, and I
have often wondered how it would be with ourselves. So far, there seems
to be no scarcity of employment for all hands, neither is there any
prospect of it. For the men there is always the beach-wood to collect,
haul and saw up into firewood, not to mention the splitting with an axe,
which is, I believe, as hard work as any of it, and there is water to
bring in barrels each day or two from Chinik Creek, a mile away, for
drinking and cooking purposes. The barrels are put upon sleds and hauled
by the men themselves, or by the dogs if they happen to be here, and are
not at work. As to the reindeer, of course there can be no such thing as
making them haul either wood or water, for none could be found steady
enough, and should the experiment be tried, there are ten chances to one
that not a stick of wood would remain upon the sleds, nor a drop of
water in the barrels, while the distance between creek and Mission was
being made.

Of course there is always enough for women to do if they are
housekeeping, and with sewing, knitting and what recreation we take out
of doors, we fill in the time very well. It is much better and
pleasanter to be employed, and the time passes much more rapidly than
when one is idle, and I for one enjoy the change of work and the
winter's outlook immensely. Compared to what we have done in Nome during
the summer, this is child's play, and the boys who have worked at real
mining say the same thing.

November seventeenth: We have had our first lady visitor today who came
from White Mountain about fifteen miles away. She is the lady doctor who
brought Miss J. through typhoid fever last fall, and is much at home
here. She was sent for by a sick woman in the hotel, and will spend the
night with Miss J., who is very kind to her. The visiting preacher left
for the Home this morning very early, going with a native and reindeer.
Mr. L. and B. were called in to the jury trial of the murderer who
killed the man in the hotel the other night, and they got home late. The
girls were out upon the ice in the evening for exercise, getting tired
of being indoors all day long, and needing fresh air. When all were in
at half-past eleven in the evening, coffee and crackers were taken by
all but me, but I have had to leave off drinking coffee, taking hot
water with cream and sugar instead. B. says he thinks the latter