able personal asset which I could.
The beautiful schooner, Emma E. White, also a personal possession,
arrived in St. John's while we were there with a full load of lumber,
but it and she sailed straight into the melting-pot. The merchants,
with one exception, were all as good about the matter as men can be.
They were perfectly satisfied when they realized that I meant facing
the debt squarely. One was nasty about it, saying that he would not
wait--and oddly enough in ordinary life he was a man whom one would
not expect to be ungenerous, for he too was a religious man. Whether
he gained by it or not it is hard to say. He was paid first, anyhow.
The standard of what is really remunerative in life is differently
graded. The stores have dealt with him since, and his prices are fair
and honest; but he was the only one among some twenty who even
appeared to kick a man when he was down. I have nothing but gratitude
to all the rest.

I should add that the incident was not the fault of the people of the
coast. Often I had been warned by the merchants that the cooperative
stores would fail and that the people would rob me. It is true that
there was trouble over the badly kept books, and a number of the
fishermen disclaimed their debts charged against them; but with one
exception no one came and said that he had had things which were not
noted on the bills. I am confident, however, that they did not go back
on me willingly, and when my merchant friends said, "I told you so," I
honestly was able to state that it was the management, not the people
or the system, that was at fault. Indeed, subsequent events have
proved this. For five of the stores still run, and run splendidly, and
pay handsomer dividends by far than any investment our people could
possibly make elsewhere.

With the sale of a few investments and some other available property,
the liability was so far reduced that, with what the stores paid, only
one merchant was not fully indemnified, and he generously told me not
to worry about the balance.

This same year, on the other hand, one of our most forward steps, so
far as the Mission was concerned, was taken, through the generosity of
the late Mr. George B. Cluett, of Troy, New York. He had built
specially for our work a magnificent three-masted schooner, fitted
with the best of gear including a motor launch. She was constructed of
three-inch oak plank, sheathed with hardwood for work in the
ice-fields. She was also f