crouched the daughter, listening to what I said about administering the
medicines. A little boy with bright eyes and a stock of uncombed black
hair was also crouching over the fire. This was Willie, the youngest of
the family, now about five years old, and little did I think then how
much I should have to do with that boy in his after life. Sitting down
by the poor woman, I uncovered my basket and displayed my medicines,
and explained to the daughter how the mixture was to be taken twice a
day, and the liniment to be rubbed on the affected parts. Jane then
changed places with me and applied some of the liniment, and the poor
creature immediately felt some relief and began talking about it to her
daughter. These poor people seemed to be entirely dependent on the
kindness of their neighbours; it was old Shesheet who first told me
about them, and I understood that he used often to send them food or
firewood. When I visited her on another cold day in October,
accompanied by my wife, we found her coiled up in her rags moaning with
pain, and only a few dying embers to keep her warm. Little Willie was
coiled up asleep in a sheepskin. While we stood, Willie roused up out
of his nest, and came to see what was going on; his sister, however,
motioned him to go back, and, like a discontented little puppy, he made
a low sort of whine, and buried himself again, head and all, in his
sheepskin. We went back to the Mission-house and brought some tea for
the poor woman, which she drank eagerly, and we provided her also with
a candle stuck in a bottle and some firewood, but she never smiled, or
said thank you. Her feelings as well as her features seemed to have
become hardened with constant pain and suffering. However, we were
agreeably surprised one day when she presented my wife with four tiny
baskets, tastefully made, and a smile for once actually played on her
lips. Some time after she was taken into a house by some friendly
Indians, and kindly cared for, the result of which was that she became
gradually better.