A Christmas in Labrador.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 75, 21 December 1907, Page 22

A Christmas in Labrador.

[By -Hesiceth Priciuhd.]

: Contrast is surely tho salt of enjoyment and delight, and: in the ideal Christmas of my imagination I picturo a weary individual; battling his way through tho snow behind his tired dog-team over tho desolate country of the Labrador Peninsula... • . . It is Christmas Eve, and already the slfort day is drawing in. Tho wind comes roaring down the gullies unladen by any hint of human presence'. It has swept across tho un-j tenanted limitless leagues of the interior. It carries'the promise 'of snow.' Underfoot the ground is covered-with a whito cloak several feet' in thickness. The one fear of *tho traveller is that'lie will* not bo able to reach his destination; iudeed hp has' almost given it up, and is. looking for a sheltered, or comparatively sheltered, place in which to build' his snow hut, when, rounding yet another of the innumerable promontories, he. sees . before liini the gleam and wink of lights. ./They-1 aro those of the' Moravian mission, station at Hopedale. -.' \.. 1 ;.' The dogs see. them too, and lose their las-, situdo. In a very short the-komatik is drawn up outsid'o the palisade,' and, tho traveller being welcomed-by his friends. And such a wolcome it isl Quite different from the welcome of a civilised land, for hero'' inon aro allied closely in a struggle for existenco; their common enemies are hunger, cold, and darkness. "So you have come, after all," cries tho house father. "Wo were afraid you wouldn't win through. This is splendid. Come in! Como in!" And tho traveller enters, to meet a second welcome from the ladies of tho mission, whose gracious and unsolfish presence goes far to render life less arduous in the inhospitable and lonely land. And now, as the traveller sits down by the stovo ho knows and experiences all tho joys of contrast. He is in the fnidst of European life transplanted. . He thinks of tho. wind which is raging seaward upon the other side of the Hopedalo promontories, of tho snow hut and tho labour of unharnessing his dogs, which so nearly has been his portion, as lie discusses tho'news of the lonely coast. Instead he sees the ruddy lights of the mission house-shining on the snow and upon tho squat forms of the Eskimo, who are attending to his komatik. And I think that ho experiences one of tho most joyous sensations in lifd.

Next morning, after a long, dreamless, tired sleep, ho is awakeiicd' by the' bell of tho church. The scone upon which ho looks out is like tho pictured Christmas of boyish dreams —a flag is flying on the'flagstaff, the glittoring roofs gleam through tho frosty air, and in the wild, straggling village on tho hill tho Eskimo hunters' and fishermen are shaking hands in great good-fellowship. ■ Later, from all the surrounding huts and from distances up to 40 miles tho settlors, or planters, as they call themselves,. throng in to service, which is in Eskimo and in English, and to spend Christmas Day. The missionaries, men who call Labrador "homo," and whoso fathers and grandfathers liavo been Moravian missionaries before them, have the power of making Christmas tho happy and splendid day it should be. They transform 'the mission houso . into a resthouse upon the road of life, and tho stranger who is within their gates realises what lifo on tho Labrador would be without them. I think the ideal Christmas is ono s'l-.-h as the Moravians spend in tho x oight months' winter of tho Labrador.