ark-skinned ones, "Beoqua."

CHAPTER XXVII.

GOING OUTSIDE.

"Do I sleep? Do I dream?
Do I wonder and doubt?
Are things what they seem?
Or are visions about?"

I was now actually on my way home. It was not a dream, for here I was on
board the snug little ocean steamer "Dora," belonging to the Alaska
Commercial Company, and I was on my way to St. Michael and Dawson. For
ocean travel our steamer was a perfect one in all its appointments,
being staunch and reliable, with accommodating officers. After taking a
last look at Chinik, I went to my stateroom. Only one stop was made
before we reached St. Michael, that being at Port Denbeigh, a new mining
camp where for some hours freight was unloaded. In about twenty-two
hours from the time we left Chinik we were in St. Michael harbor,
climbing down upon a covered barge which took us ashore.

It was nearly two years since I had first landed at this dock,--then in
a snow storm, now in the rain,--then with my brother, now alone. Not at
all like Nome is this quiet little hamlet of St. Michael by the sea.
Neither saloons nor disorderly places are allowed upon the island. What
was formerly a canteen for soldiers was now a small but tidy restaurant,
where I ate a good dinner of beef-steak with an appetite allowable in
Alaska.

Upon the streets and about the barracks were many boys in blue, while
the hotel parlors swarmed at dinner time with officers and their wives
and daughters, all richly and fashionably attired. At the parlor piano
two ladies performed a duet, while the silken skirts of others rustled
in an aristocratic manner over the thick carpet, and gentlemen in dress
suits and gold-laced uniforms gracefully posed and chatted.

For my own part, a little homesick feeling had to be resolutely put down
as I pulled on my old rain coat, and with umbrella and handbag trudged
out in the darkness and rain to look for my baggage. I had already
secured my transportation at the steamship office, where, at the hands
of the kindly manager of the Alaska Commercial Company's affairs in this
country I had received the most courteous treatment I could desire. With
little delay I found my trunk and went on board the Yukon steamer T. C.
Power.

Some months before a consolidation of the three largest transportation
companies in Alaska had been effected, including the Alaska Commercial
Company, and I was now traveling with the latter under the name of the
North