stefansson-wrangel-09-34-013

supplies were put in order end storage made for tools end
meteorological equipment set up, that is what she got busy
doing. It was never necessary for her to measure any of
the boys for clothing, she simply looked at them carefully
then hefted the skins to find the right ones and cut them
to proper size, drew out the nerves from seal-sinew and
twisted thorn with her teeth into a tough thread, and went
to work from intuition. She prided herself that everything
fit to perfection, and that the seam she stitched into seal-
skin boots was invisible said absolutely watertight, too,
without using grease.

Once she had a needle in hand she had been
contented for the first time since leaving Nome.

And she had liked the camp the boys built.
It was on enclosure, one wall of which was dug out of a
steep bank while the other three walls were framed to support
snow blocks, with openings left in the sod roof for stove-
pipes. Inside this enclosure a small kitchen tent was pitched
end to end against a larger tent in which she and the boys .
would eat, talk, read, write and sleep for the next year.
It was snug against weather, it would be warm, and if it shut
out sunlight entirely and her needle would have to fly by the
light of an oil lamp, well, she was used to that. It was a
good camp, the boys knew what they were doing, and that first
autumn it was really childish to be afraid of anything. It
was her nature to be happy, so for awhile she had been.

"April 2nd.

I took chips poket out today one of my eye that
is swollen is going down a little and one side