te northern country
navigation closes very early and that after the last boat leaves there
is no possibility of getting out of that region until navigation opens
again in the next season. Some of them are discreet and reach the
landing in ample time. Others are careless. They continue their search
for gold a little too long, and arrive at the river a day too late. The
boat has sailed and they must become prisoners of the ice king. It's a
great misfortune but they alone are responsible. They cannot escape from
Alaska for many months but within Alaska they are absolutely free. They
can build a cabin and either waste the time with idle games or seriously
think and study. They are limited but free within the limitation, and
the limitation itself was of their own making. It is precisely so with
us in the environment of the present incarnation and with our various
fortunes. We made them and, when the forces with which we did it are
exhausted, we shall be free. Meantime we can do much toward modification
and improvement.

The reactions from the forces we generate naturally do us exact justice
just because they _are_ reactions. We reap precisely what we sow. The
reaction may sometimes seem harsh but consideration of the matter from
all points of view will show that mercy as well as justice is always a
factor. Let us consider the method by which nature changes recklessness
into caution. A man is careless, we will say, about lighting a cigar and
throwing the burning match down wherever it may happen to fall. He may
go on doing that a long time with no serious result, yet all careful
people know that he is a source of danger. Some time ago a newspaper
told the story of such a man, who passed along the street, lighted a
cigaret and carelessly flung the flaming match from him. A nurse was
passing with her charge in its tiny carriage. The match fell on some of
the light, airy wraps of the infant and they burst into a blaze. Before
the fire could be extinguished the child was so badly burned that it
died the next day.

The moment such a case is stated we realize the necessity of something
that will cure the man of such fatal carelessness. He is a menace to the
lives and property in his vicinity. No law, however, can be invoked. He
had no criminal intent but he is none the less dangerous for that, as
the incident proved. We are helpless, however, to prevent his continued
carelessness. But nature is not helpless. Under the law of actio