Troop One of the Labrador

grade. At the end of the living-room opposite the entrance were two doors, one leading to Margaret's room, the other to

built against the wall at the left of the entrance, and between two windows on the south side of the room, which looked out upon The Jug, was a shelf upon which Thomas kept his Bible and Margaret her sewing basket

e windows, but the floor, table, chairs-all the woodwork, indeed-were scoured to immaculate whiteness with sand and soap, and everything was spo

ht when he was awakened by Thomas building a fire in the stove, for

id Doctor Joe, with a yawn

'," sai

homas, fair for our t

-morrow for the trip. After your long voyage 'twould be a bit trying for you to turn back to-day to Fort

"I thought you'd be getting ready for the trapping and would like to get t

th hoarfrost. The air was charged with the perfume of balsam and spruce and other sweet odours of th

Mountains rose out of the gloom, white with snow and looming above the dark forest at their base in cold and silent majesty. Behind the cabin stretched the vast, mysterious, unbounded wilderness which

outs could only see this

me out unobserved by Doctor Joe. "There's no better shelter on the coast, and no better place for seals and salmon,

upon piles of ugly buildings, and never a breath of such pure air as this to be breathed. I was thinking of these fine young chaps, the Boy Scouts I saw there, who are trying to study God's big out-of-doors and must content themselves with stingy little parks. It

n such places as you tells about. There's plenty o' room down here on The Labrador, and plenty o' other places, I'm not

paces from a railway if they could help themselves. They take a car and ride if they've only half a mile to go. They

enough to keep un busy they never gets lonesome, and bein' idle is like wastin' a part of life. A man could never be lonesome where there's plenty o' water and woods a

well as body. Why, Thomas, I've often heard men say that they had to 'ki

rd never wants folks to be idle or kill time. He fixes it so there's a-plenty

r has an hour to kill. The day hasn't hours enough for him. It's the other kind tha

ce, each busy with his own th

eakin' my leg and couldn't work He sends along Indian Jake to go to the trails to hunt with David and Andy, and they makes a fine hunt and keeps us out o' debt. And this summer we has as fine a catch of salmon as ever we has, and we'r

ty blue for us," said Doctor Joe, "but eve

elves when troubles come the Lord is like t' step in and give us a hand. He wants us to d

advantage of every opportunity that comes to him, an

can t' manage the boat, and I'll be staying home to make ready for the trail. There's a-plenty to be done yet to make ready without hurry, and a trip to

eat!" exclaimed Doctor Joe. "The boys wi

oast. Indian Jake's to be my trappin' pardner th' winter, and the lads'll 'bide home. You'll be needin' dogs and komatik (sledge) to take you about. There'll be little enough for the d

his will make it possible for me to see a good many people that I

at too, and the lads will be glad enoug

n the porch. Now Jamie appeared to announce breakfast. While they ate the boys were able to talk of little else than the scout books, and the fact they were to do as boys did in oth

e scout book things," Andy suggested. "Maybe now we

Joe. "And since you're to take me about with dogs and komatik this winter when I go

bout?" asked A

hare in looking after the sick folk, and that David and

dogs for you, sir!" exclaime

fine!" ec

goin' outside the

in it, wherever there's ne

ed Thomas, "travellin' when the weather's nasty, bu

lared with pride in the conf

ards and withering arctic winds to face, and no end of hard work. But these lads of The Labrador loved to stand upon their feet like men and face and conquer the elements like hardy men of courage. This is the way of boys the world over-eager for the time when they

complished in less than six days. Lem Horn and his family lived at Horn's Bight, thirty miles from The Jug, and fifteen miles beyond, at Caribou Arm, was Jerry Snook's cabin. Save an Eskimo settlement of half a dozen huts near Fort Pelican and the families of Lem Horn and

olasses for sweetening, flour, baking-powder, fat salt pork, lard, margarine, salt and pepper. The equipment included a frying-pan, a basin for mixing dough, a tin kettle for tea, a larger kettle to be used in cooking, one large cooking spoon

sharpening the axes and a sleeping-bag for each. Men in that land do not travel without arms, and it was decided that David should

l set the tent stove upon the gravel. Here they could cook their meals at midday, and the gravel would protect the bottom of the boat from heat. A sufficient quantity of fire-wood was taken a