stefansson-wrangel-09-32-074v

348 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

out. He grew very weak so she would hold his head to give
him a drink or to feed him eggs of the sea-gull; that was not long
before he died.

Galle’s trap line was about three miles long. Ada would go out
to look at the traps; many times so weak she could hardly make
it—hurrying back to chop and split wood for fires and get snow to
melt for water, while daylight lasted—for she kept fires continu-
ously. Later she couldn’t make the three miles so she set the
traps in a circle around the camp to make less of a trip. Then
there were not so many foxes. Finally Knight did eat fox saying
he was surprised it tasted so good. She ate the head and little bit
of kidney, saving the rest of the fox for him.

When he grew helpless she made little pillows of cotton to put
under his shoulders and hips when he got so thin—and bags of
canvas—these she filled with hot sand each night, to slip around
his body to keep him warm. She always placed a fresh cup of
water on a box at his bedside in case he should want a drink in
the night. If the fire went out this would freeze over the top in a
little time so she would put a pen knife he had beside the cup so
he could break through the ice if he wanted a drink.

She came to a realization then that he was very ill—'“he was
white—white like paper—I knew he was going to die”—-she said,
her eyes filling with tears.

She was asked if she ever studied nursing in the Mission School.
“No—only I have had two little babies that died—I take care of
them when they are sick—so I say to myself ‘Ada, Mr. Knight
is sick now just like a little baby and I will take care of him just
like my own little babies that are sick and die’.”

She read to him from his grandfather’s Bible. “Ada,” he told
her, “When we get back to Nome I am going to give you this
Bible.” “I wanted very much to have that Bible—and well—
then his mother gave it to me later when I visited in McMinnville,
Oregon. That makes me very happy.”

Once when she was putting her fox skins into stretchers he was
lying in his bunk watching her, he told her she was doing it all
wrong—“white ladies want wide skins and you must stretch them
as wide as you can—you are stretching them long.” She told him
—“some native men who got skins have been telling me to make