80 Snapshots from the North Paevfe.

health, which you know has been broken for about two years.
During the winter I have been an unwilling prisoner, so that
the pastoral care of this place has been entirely in Mr.
Gurd’s hands, and they have been efficient. This enforced
seclusion has been ordered for the best. The disciphne must
have been required or it would not be imposed by the Divine
Bishop of souls. No longer do I impatiently chafe as a
caged bird, though I am glad to be on the wing, set free to
go and come by the same kind Hand that shut me in.

“Sympathy is very sweet, and of this I have had
innumerable proofs. But my weather-tanned face and hands
hardened by the paddle make no further claim. Since April
my writing desk has been rarely opened because of my con-
stant voyaging. My fingers, lately so thin and pliable, now
are stiff and scarred and blistered. On the twenty-seventh
anniversary of my wedding-day I paddled sixteen hours in
steady rain, and during the week’s travelling slept two nights
in the bottom of the open boat anchored close in shore. <As
I dozed I was startled by what I at first thought was a
steamer’s whistle, but it was only the buzz of a bold mosquito
exploring my ear, which I smartly boxed to kill the poisonous
intruder. Hedid me a service, however, for being wide-awake
i became conscious that on my right side my blankets were
soaking in the rain water that accumulated in the boat.
Wringing them out I tucked them more tightly round me
for the night, and next day, on my arrival at Kincolith, Mrs.
Collison hung them round her kitchen to dry.

“T can scarcely realize that I am the same man that spent
the winter months watched and tended as an invalid. It
had its advantages, for though often weary with bodily in-
firmity I was able to devote an average of six hours daily to
linguistic work, which has already proved valuable to my
brethren, and will be yet more useful to new missionaries.
As long as I was able to follow my out-of-door episcopal work
T could make no leisure for the hterary department, so
God enforced the leisure, and it has borne as good fruit as
the most active winter I have ever spent in this country.

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