forts, our pipes are
frozen, and in this country the ground does not thaw out completely
until July or August, when we are making preparations for being frozen
in again. Think of what this means for a household of over forty when
every drop of water has to be hauled in barrels by our boys, and the
superintendent has to stand over them to compel them to bring enough.
Cleanliness at such a cost must surely be a long way towards
godliness. I can now appreciate the story of the chaplain from a
whaling ship who is said to have wandered into an encampment of the
Eskimos. He told the people of heaven with all its glories, and it
meant nothing to these children of the North; they were not
interested in his story. But when he changed his theme and spoke of
hell, with its everlasting fires which needed no replenishing, they
cried, "Where is it? Tell us that we may go"; and big and little, they
clambered over him, eager for details.

[Illustration: A LONG WAY ON THE HEAVENWARD ROAD]

By morning every room on the windward side of our house looked like
the inside of an igloo. The fine drift had silted in through each most
minute cranny and crevice--even though we have double windows all
over the building; and on the night in question we had decided that
sufficient fresh air was entering in spite of us to permit our
disobeying our self-imposed anti-tuberculosis regulations. The wind
and snow are so persistent and so penetrating that the merest slit
gives them entrance, and the accumulations of such a night make one
fancy in the morning that the King of the Golden River has paid an
infuriated visit to our part of the globe. When I went into the
babies' dormitory every little bed was snowed under, and only the
children's dark hair contrasted with the universal whiteness.

The second night I verily thought the house would come about our ears.
The gale had increased in fury, the thermometer stood at thirty below,
and I stayed up to be ready for emergencies. At midnight, thinking one
room must surely be blown in, I carried the sleeping babes into
another wing of the house. If for any reason we had had to leave the
building that night, none of us could have lived to reach a place of
safety. I wish you could have seen us the following morning. The snow
had drifted in so that in places it was over six feet high. I ventured
out and found that every exit but one from the Home was snowed up. We
had therefore to dig ourselves out of the woo