Missionary Work Among the Ojebway Indians | Page 8

taught.
We had to start at 3.30 a.m. next morning to catch the early train for
Sarnia. It was a clear starlight night when we emerged from the
hospitable shelter of an Indian's log-house and started on our
pilgrimage through the bush. There was no moon, and we had some
difficulty in groping our way. Wagimah went first, and slowly and
cautiously we proceeded, carrying our wraps and satchels with us.
However, with all our care, we had soon lost our way, and found

ourselves stumbling along over a potato patch, without having the least
idea where we were. For nearly an hour we were wandering about,
when at length we came once more upon a beaten track; but whether it
was the right one or not we could not tell. However we followed it, and
almost before we were aware we found ourselves out of the bush and
standing on a broad clay road, and at length we arrived at Forest Station
in good time for the cars to Sarnia.
After this we visited Kettle Point every fortnight, and many were the
amusing incidents connected with those trips. Sometimes I drove the
whole distance in my own trap, at other times took train to Forest or
Widder, and some of the Indians would meet me with a waggon or
sleigh, as the case might be, at the Station. It was on the 9th of
September that we commenced our school in the vacant log-house. We
began with A, B, C, as no one yet knew anything. There were eleven
children and five adults present. I was amused in the evening to see a
game of draughts going on, on a log outside the Chief's house; the
draught-board was a flat part of the log with squares carved out on its
surface, the black men were squares of pumpkin rind with green side up,
the white men the same with the green side down. That night we slept
at Adam Sahpah's house.
Our sleeping places on these Kettle Point expeditions were various.
One bitterly cold night in the late autumn, I remember, passing in a
little boarded shanty used as a workshop. We were nearly perished in
the morning, and were glad to get inside David Sahpah's comfortable
log-house; a huge fire was blazing on the hearth, and the Indian women
all busy, some with their pots and frying-pans, boiling potatoes and
baking cakes, others dressing and cleaning the children. Mrs.
Ahbettuhwahnuhgund gave me a chair, and down I sat by the blazing
fire and gazed with a feeling of happy contentment into the yellow
flames. The scene was certainly a novel one. In a dark corner by the
chimney sat a dirty old couple on the couch where they had been
passing the night; they were visitors from Muncey Town, and were
staying a few nights only at Kettle Point. The old woman lighted up her
pipe, and whiffed away with her eyes half shut; after enjoying it for
about twenty minutes or so, her old husband thought she had had

enough, and taking it from her put it in his own mouth and had his
whiff. When he had done, he restored it again to his wife. Underneath
another old bedstead were a couple of large dogs, which occasionally
let their voices be heard in a dispute; some of the stones on one side of
the fire-place had broken away, making a little window through which
the dogs could reach the fire, and it was amusing to see how they put
their noses and paws through the opening and warmed themselves just
like human beings. Down in another corner sat an antiquated old
woman enveloped in a blanket, and in vain endeavouring to comfort a
little fat boy of about ten months who was crying, as only children
know how to cry, for his mother. Finding that she could not content the
baby, she at length got up, and taking off her blanket, put one end of it
round the baby's shoulders, tucked the ends under its arms, and then
with one sweep placed baby and blanket together on her back, and with
one or two pulls once more got the blanket wrapped completely round
her, and the little fat boy snugly ensconced between her shoulders; then
she marched off to give him an airing. The bigger children were set to
clean themselves, a tin bowl of water and a towel being given them in
turns. I was wondering whether my turn would come, when Mrs.
Ahbettuhwahnuhgund, having once more filled the bowl, addressed me
with the words, "Maund'uhpe," which in polite English would mean,
"Here you are!" "Ah, meegwach, ahpecte"--"thank you kindly"--said I,
and forthwith began my ablutions, while the children stood around me
in wonderment.
One night I