THE MOST PRIMITIVE STATION IN LABRADOR.


Our dear missionaries who dwell in Labrador for the King's work have
certainly not much space in their small sitting-rooms and smaller
bedrooms, for each family is content with two apartments, easily
warmed in winter. They meet in the common dining room for meals, the
household worship or conference, and the sisters take it in turns, a
week at a time, to preside over the kitchen department, where they
have the aid of an Eskimo servant. Besides the ministry and the
pastoral care of their congregations, the brethren share between them
a vast variety of constantly recurring temporal duties, for in
Labrador there is no baker, greengrocer, and butcher round the corner,
and no mason, carpenter, plumber, painter or glazier to be called in
when repairs are needed. The missionaries must discharge all these
offices, as well as be their own gardener and smith, and on occasion
doctor, dentist, chemist, or anything else that may be necessary.
These general remarks hold good of mission life at every station, but
in many respects Okak is the most primitive of the six, and not least
in the appointments of the mission-house, like all the rest, built of
wood.

Glance round the two rooms kindly set apart for the English guest.
They are the same size as the simple domain of any one of the three
mission families resident here. The sitting-room is about fourteen
feet by twelve; its panelled walls are coloured a blue-green. The
floor is boarded, and over the middle a carpet is laid. In front of