meal
of the day; for we had a tacit understanding that when these times
arrived that we could not really enjoy our fish diet, we would
resolutely put in the whole days work without tasting food. The result
was, that when we drew up to the table after having refused the morning
breakfast, and ignored the midday meal, we found that our appetite, even
for fish, had returned, and we enjoyed them greatly. And what was more,
the appetite for them remained with us for some considerable time
thereafter.

Hunger is still a good sauce; and we found--and others also have made
the same discovery--that when the appetite fails and there is a tendency
to criticise, or find fault with the food, or even with the cook, a
voluntary abstinence for two or three meals will be most beneficial for
mind and body, and bring back a very decided appreciation of some of
God's good gifts which hitherto had been little esteemed.

Of course the great and prominent work was the preaching of the Gospel
and the teaching of the people to read the Word of God. To this latter
work we devote a full chapter and so need not refer to it here. Next
perhaps to the direct results obtained by the preaching of the Word, we
accomplished the most good by the medical work.

Indians are fond of medicine and are believers in large doses. The
hotter the dose is with cayenne pepper, or the more bitter with any
powerful drug, the more it is relished, and the greater faith they have
in its power to effect a cure. Various were the expedients of some of
them to induce us to give them a good strong cup of tea, made doubly hot
with red pepper. In their estimation such a dose was good for almost
any disease with which they could be afflicted, and was especially
welcomed in the cold and wintry days, when the mercury was frozen hard,
and the spirit thermometer indicated anything between forty and sixty
degrees below zero.

Practical sympathy never failed to reach some hearts, and so influenced
them, that they were ultimately brought to Christ.

So poverty stricken were the people, that the opportunities of helping
them were many. Looked at from our standpoint of comfort, they had very
little with which to make themselves happy. Few indeed were their
possessions. Owning the land in common, there was in it no wealth to
any one of them; but neither were there any landlords, or rents. All
their other possessions were their wigwams, traps, nets, guns, canoes,
dogs, and