n told she was dying, asked to be dressed in her Sunday frock to
go to heaven in. My costume, being very light, dried all the quicker,
until afternoon. Then nothing would dry anymore, everything freezing
stiff. It had been an ideal costume to struggle through the slob ice.
I really believe the conventional garments missionaries are supposed
to affect would have been fatal.

My occupation till what seemed like midnight was unravelling rope, and
with this I padded out my knickers inside, and my shirt as well,
though it was a clumsy job, for I could not see what I was doing. Now,
getting my largest dog, Doc, as big as a wolf and weighing ninety-two
pounds, I made him lie down, so that I could cuddle round him. I then
wrapped the three skins around me, arranging them so that I could lie
on one edge, while the other came just over my shoulders and head.

My own breath collecting inside the newly flayed skin must have had a
soporific effect, for I was soon fast asleep. One hand I had kept warm
against the curled up dog, but the other, being gloveless, had frozen,
and I suddenly awoke, shivering enough, I thought, to break my fragile
pan. What I took at first to be the sun was just rising, but I soon
found it was the moon, and then I knew it was about half-past twelve.
The dog was having an excellent time. He hadn't been cuddled so warm
all winter, and he resented my moving with low growls till he found it
wasn't another dog.

[Illustration: DOC]

The wind was steadily driving me now toward the open sea, and I could
expect, short of a miracle, nothing but death out there. Somehow, one
scarcely felt justified in praying for a miracle. But we have learned
down here to pray for things we want, and, anyhow, just at that moment
the miracle occurred. The wind fell off suddenly, and came with a
light air from the southward, and then dropped stark calm. The ice was
now "all abroad," which I was sorry for, for there was a big safe pan
not twenty yards away from me. If I could have got on that, I might
have killed my other dogs when the time came, and with their coats I
could hope to hold out for two or three days more, and with the food
and drink their bodies would offer me need not at least die of hunger
or thirst. To tell the truth, they were so big and strong I was half
afraid to tackle them with only a sheath-knife on my small and
unstable raft.

But it was now freezing hard. I knew the calm water between us would
form into