Bobby had eaten heartily and his eyes grew heavy with sleep he was
undressed and tucked away into bed, with Mrs. Abel lying by his side for
a little, crooning an Eskimo lullaby before she washed her dishes. And
at length, when the dishes were washed, and all was made snug for the
night, Abel took down, as was his custom, the Bible, and read by the
flickering light, and he and Mrs. Abel sang a hymn, and knelt in family
devotion, before they joined the sleeping Bobby in their bed.

Abel Zachariah's nearest neighbor was Edward Norman, commonly known as
Skipper Ed, a sailor-man who had come to the coast many years before in
a fishing vessel, and when his vessel sailed away Skipper Ed had
remained behind to cast his lot with the Eskimos. At the head of Abel's
bay and a mile from Abel's home, he took up the life of hunter and
fisherman, and in due time learned to speak the Eskimo language. Here
Skipper Ed lived with his little partner, as he called him--Jimmy
Sanderson, a husky lad of seven years.

Jimmy was an orphan. His mother died when he was so young that he could
scarcely remember her at all. His father, a Newfoundland sailor and
fisherman, was one of the crew of a fishing schooner that sailed
regularly each summer to this part of the Labrador coast, and because
there was no one at home to care for him after his mother's death, Jimmy
always accompanied his father on these voyages. And thus it came about
that when Seaman Sanderson fell overboard while reefing the jib, one
stormy day, Jimmy was left alone in the world.

It so happened that on the day Jimmy's father was lost, the schooner,
with the forlorn little boy on board, took refuge under the lee of the
island upon which Skipper Ed had his fishing camp. Skipper Ed, after the
manner of the Coast, rowed his boat alongside and climbed aboard, to