delayed him, and he was twenty-four days on the egg diet. Unfortunately,
while asleep he had drifted by both the missions of St. Paul and Holy
Cross. And he could sincerely say, as he afterward did, that talk about
missions on the Yukon was all humbug. There weren't any missions, and he
was the man to know.

Once on Bering Sea he exchanged the egg diet for seal diet, and he never
could make up his mind which he liked least. In the fall of the year he
was rescued by a United States revenue cutter, and the following winter
he made quite a hit in San Francisco as a temperance lecturer. In this
field he found his vocation. "Avoid the bottle" is his slogan and battle-
cry. He manages subtly to convey the impression that in his own life a
great disaster was wrought by the bottle. He has even mentioned the loss
of a fortune that was caused by that hell-bait of the devil, but behind
that incident his listeners feel the loom of some terrible and unguessed
evil for which the bottle is responsible. He has made a success in his
vocation, and has grown grey and respected in the crusade against strong
drink. But on the Yukon the passing of Marcus O'Brien remains tradition.
It is a mystery that ranks at par with the disappearance of Sir John
Franklin.

THE WIT OF PORPORTUK

El-Soo had been a Mission girl. Her mother had died when she was very
small, and Sister Alberta had plucked El-Soo as a brand from the burning,
one summer day, and carried her away to Holy Cross Mission and dedicated
her to God. El-Soo was a full-blooded Indian, yet she exceeded all the
half-breed and quarter-breed girls. Never had the good sisters dealt
with a girl so adaptable and at the same time so spirited.

El-Soo was quick, and deft, and intelligent; but above all she was fire,
the living flame of life, a blaze of personality that was compounded of
will, sweetness, and daring. Her father was a chief, and his blood ran
in her veins. Obedience, on the part of El-Soo, was a matter of terms
and arrangement. She had a passion for equity, and perhaps it was
because of this that she excelled in mathematics.

But she excelled in other things. She learned to read and write English
as no girl had ever learned in the Mission. She led the girls in
singing, and into song she carried her sense of equity. She was an
artist, and the fire of her flowed toward creation. Had she from birth
enjoyed a more favourable environment, she would have