Grenfell: Knight-Errant of the NorthWaldo, Fullerton L. (Fullerton Leonard)
History
Grenfell: Knight-Errant of the North
Waldo, Fullerton L. (Fullerton Leonard)
Grenfell, Wilfred Thomason, Sir, 1865-1940
Pomiuk's wound never healed--he could not run about, nor walk, nor
even stand. His mother had to carry him everywhere. In Newfoundland
the fishermen and the sealers, desperately poor as they were, took
them into their bare cabins, and gave them bread and tea taken from
the mouths of their own hungry children.
Dr. Frederick Cook, creation's champion liar, did a golden deed for
which the Recording Angel should give him a good mark in the Book of
Life. He made room for several of the Eskimo on his journey to the
Labrador coast: and fishing-schooners took the rest of the survivors.
Imagine how happy Pomiuk was, in spite of the pain in his hip, when he
thought of crawling back into the mouth of his own snow house again,
and rubbing noses with his father once more!
But when the mother and the child were put ashore at Nachoak Bay--they
were told that the father's spirit was at play with the rest among the
northern lights. In this world they would not see him again. He had
been murdered while his wife and child were in Chicago.
It was at that dark hour that Dr. Grenfell came into his life.
Grenfell found the poor little boy, who had earned so much money, and
brought so much glory to his tribe, lying naked on the rocks beside
the hut. The mother had married again, and gone off "over the
mountains" with the other children, leaving her crippled son to the
tender mercy of the neighbors. It was indeed a "come-down" in the
world for a "prince," whose father was a "king" among his fellows. It
was deemed best to send Pomiuk south on the little hospital steamer
with the Doctor. The Doctor could fix him up, if anybody could, and
moreover--this was the clinching argument--he was "no good fishing."
So the next day found Pomiuk bound south, clasping his only worldly
possession--a letter from a clergyman of Andover, Massachusetts. There
was a photograph with it. If you asked Pomiuk what he had there, he
would turn on that magic smile and show you the picture, and say: "Me
love even him."
The minister who wrote the letter sent money for the care of the poor
"Prince." Next summer Grenfell saw him again, and the child laughed as
he said, "Me Gabriel Pomiuk now." A Moravian missionary had given him
the name. They had made him as comfortable as possible at the Indian
Harbor hospital: his own disposition made him happy. He had been moved
from the hospital to a near-by home, and he hopped about on crutches
as gayly as though he could run and play like the other children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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