Down north on the Labrador / by Wilfred T. Grenfell.

  • Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason, Sir, 1865-1940.
Date:
[1911]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Down north on the Labrador / by Wilfred T. Grenfell. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The humour of the position, however, was what perhaps most struck me, for, quite off his guard and unaware of the fact, here was Johnnie at last, in spite of himself, obviously “getting learning.” When Johnnie himself as successfully counted backwards the balls he was to aim at, my facetious colleague suggested that our little schoolma’am at the piano must surely be in danger of nervous prostration. Things went along swimmingly with the kindergarten; rumours that a weird desire to acquire wisdom had developed like measles in all the children reached us daily, at hos- pital. Had we known the sad story of the Pied Piper of Hamlin we might have had reason to be jealous of this success, and we might have been pardoned for listening to the disquieting rumours that began to creep along the harbour. These, however, came from a different cause altogether. Our people have a very well defined though sometimes a singular idea of what Almighty God allows and does not allow. They are people who stand for fixed principles, and the cost to them and the sacrifice involved don’t count one iota with those who claim to be Chris- tian men—a trait which has many things to commend it