a word of theirs. Of how far or how long they travelled
Edith could form no idea, as she slept profoundly during the journey,
and did not thoroughly recover her strength and faculties until after
her arrival at the camp.

For many days after reaching the Esquimau village poor Edith did nothing
but weep; for, besides the miserable circumstances in which she was now
placed, she was much too considerate and unselfish in her nature to
forget that her parents would experience all the misery of supposing her
dead, and added to this was the terrible supposition that the natives
into whose hands she had fallen might never hear of Fort Chimo. The
distracted child did her utmost by means of signs to make them
understand that such a place existed, but her efforts were of no avail.
Either she was not eloquent in the language of signs, or the natives
were obtuse. As time abated the first violence of her grief, she began
to entertain a hope that ere long some wandering natives might convey
intelligence of her to the fur-traders. As this hope strengthened she
became more cheerful, and resolved to make a number of little ornaments
with her name inscribed on them, which she meant to hang round the necks
of the chief men of the tribe, so that should any of them ever chance to
meet with the fur-traders, these ornaments might form a clue to her
strange residence.

A small medal of whalebone seemed to her the most appropriate and
tractable material, but it cost her many long and weary hours to cut a
circular piece of this tough material with the help of an Esquimau
knife. When she had done it, however, several active boys who had
watched the operation with much curiosity and interest, no sooner
understood what she wished to make than they set to work and cut several
round pieces of ivory or walrus-tusk, which they presented to their
little guest, who scratched the name EDITH on them and hung them round
the necks of the chief men of the tribe. The Esquimaux smiled and
patted the child's fair head kindly as they received this piece of
attention, which they flattered themselves, no doubt, was entirely
disinterested and complimentary.

Winter wore gradually away, and the ice upon the sea began to show
symptoms of decay opposite to the camp of the Esquimaux. During the
high winds of spring the drift had buried the village so completely that
the beehives were scarcely visible, and the big black bees walked about
on the top of their iglo