through the mercy of
God. But who are _you_, and how come you to be in such a lonely place,
and, if I do not greatly mistake, in a starving condition?"

"I am a missionary to the Eskimos," replied the stranger, "and have been
forced to take refuge here by stress of weather. But I am not
absolutely alone, as you seem to think. There are five natives with me,
and we have an oomiak up there in the bushes. They are now asleep under
it. For five days we have been detained here almost without food, by
the recent storm and the pack-ice. Now, thanks to my Father in heaven,
we shall be able to launch our little boat, and get away. In fact,
being the first of my party to awake this morning, I rose very quietly
so as not to disturb the poor people, who stand much in need of rest,
and I had come to look at the state of the ice when I unexpectedly
discovered you on the shore."

"Stay now, sir; not another word till you have broken your fast," said
Rooney, with kindly violence, as he hastily cut a large slice from his
piece of bear's meat. "Sit down on that stone, and eat it at once. A
fasting man should not talk."

"But my companions need food to the full as much as I do," objected the
missionary.

"Do as I bid ye, sir," returned Rooney, with decision. "You say they
are asleep. Well, sleep is as needful as food and sleeping men cannot
eat. When you have eaten we will go up and awake and feed them."

Thus urged, the poor man began to eat the raw meat with as much relish
as if it had been the finest venison cooked to a turn. Before
commencing, however, he clasped his hands, closed his eyes, and audibly
thanked God for the supply.

While he was thus engaged Red Rooney did not speak, but sat looking at
his new friend with profound interest. Perchance his interest would
have deepened had he known that the man was none other than the famous
Norwegian clergyman Hans Egede, the originator of the Danish mission to
Greenland, who founded the colony of Godhaab in the year 1721, about
twelve years before the commencement of the missions of the Moravian
Brethren to that land.

The surprise which our voyagers had received by the unexpected
appearance of the missionary was, however, as nothing, compared with the
surprise that was yet in store for them on that eventful day.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

DESCRIBES A MOST AMAZING SURPRISE, AND TREATS OF HANS EGEDE.

When the starving missionary had taken the edge off his appet