as down
with the disease. When he came this morning I told him to stay
outdoors while we fetched the milk, because I knew how sketchy are the
precautions of his ilk against carrying infection. "No fear, miss," he
assured me. "The baby was terrible bad last night, but he's all clear
this morning."

But to return to the Kinsey parent. She had eight children. The
Newfoundlanders are a prolific race, and life is consequently doubly
hard on the women. Her husband died last fall, leaving her without a
sou, and no roof over her head. The Mission gave her a sort of shack,
and took two of her kiddies into the Home. The place was too crowded
at the time to take any more. The doctor then wrote to the orphanages
at the capital presenting the problem, and asking that they take a
consignment of children. The Church of England Orphanage, of which
denomination the mother is a member, was full; and the other one,
which has just had a gift of beautiful buildings and grounds,
"regretted they could not take any of the children, as their orphanage
was exclusively for their denomination." The mother did not respond to
the doctor's ironic suggestion that she should "turncoat" under the
press of circumstances.

They tell a story here about Kinsey, the late and unlamented. Last
spring a steamer heading north on Government business sighted a
fishing punt being rowed rapidly towards it, the occupant waving a
flag. The captain ordered, "Stop her," thinking that some acute
emergency had arisen on the land during the long winter. A burly old
chap cased in dirt clambered deliberately over the rail.

"Well, what's up?" asked the captain testily. "Can't you see you're
keeping the steamer?"

[Illustration: "HAVE YOU A PLUG OF BACCY, SKIPPER?"]

"Have you got a plug or so of baccy you could give me, skipper? I
hasn't had any for nigh a month, and it do be wonderful hard."

The captain's reply was unrepeatable, but for such short acquaintance
it was an accurate resume of the character of the applicant. _De
mortuis nil nisi bonum_ is all very well, but it depends on the
_mortuis_; and that man's wife and children had been short of food he
had "smoked away."

I have the greatest admiration for the women of this coast. They work
like dogs from morning till nightfall, summer and winter, with "ne'er
a spell," as one of them told me quite cheerfully. The men are out on
the sea in boats, which at least is a life of variety, and in winter
they can go