stefansson-wrangel-09-32-092v

384 THE ADVENTURE OF WRANGEL ISLAND

Nome again and a good many foolish things. At this moment she
is busy sewing. Hope she keeps it up.”

October 3rd, “The woman has had several crying spells to-day
and tells us that she was warned in Nome by a fortune teller
who told her to be careful of fire and knives. We all have a great
deal of use for knives and she, seeing us use them and believing
the fiction told her by the fortune teller, is frightened stiff. A
few minutes ago she asked me to get my rifle ready and when she
sleeps to kill her. In the next breath she asks us to save her
life and not let anyone harm her. This happens half a dozen times
a day. ... We treat her as nice as can be. One minute her
spells look like sham and the next minute real.”

On October 4th Knight says that “The woman has a spell of
crying now and then but is better than the last few days. She
is working a little at winter boots.” On October 5th, “The woman
is working some and rather quiet now. Thank Heaven!” On
October 7th, “The woman asked Crawford for a religious book
yesterday and I gave her my grandfather’s prayer book. We
pointed out several passages in the book to her showing that every-
body should be kind and work faithfully, and now she is kind and
faithful and sews continually.”

The most serious difficulties with Ada Blackjack were in late
October and in November. On the 20th of October, “Our seam-
stress has practically quit work and will not give us any reason.
Crawford, who is the only one of us who has any influence with
her, told her to-day that if she did not finish the skin she has been
scraping at [softening as a preliminary to sewing] for the last
day or two by to-night that she would be put on bread and water.
That accelerated her a bit but at bedtime to-night the skin is not
finished. We will try the Sing Sing fare on her to-morrow.”

On October 27th, “The seamstress is not doing much work and
it is nearly impossible to get her to do as much as she does. She
will not talk and tell us the reason and at the present time it looks
as though we would have to make our own clothing. Crawford is
doing his best with her, for he seems to have more influence than
any of the rest of us. He has a great deal of patience with her.
It seems as though a good horsewhip would do more than anything
else in the way of persuasion, but I am sure we will not resort to
that.”