We fed our dogs on fish, giving them only one meal a day, and that one,
when the day's work was done. To feed them in the morning, caused them
to be sluggish and stupid for some time thereafter; and the same
happened if they were fed at noon. Long experience has shown, that the
dogs thrive the best, and are able to do the most work, on one good meal
given to them before their long night's rest. The dog-shoes, which are
so essential to their comfort and recovery when a foot is frozen or
badly injured, are much prized by them. These shoes are made out of a
warm English cloth called duffle, and are in shape like a large mit
without a thumb. An old dog that has once become accustomed to dog
shoes, is ever hankering after them when on a long cold trip.
Sometimes, they will come and most comically hold up their feet to be
shod. At other times, they have been known to come into camp and there
lie down on their backs, and, holding up their four feet, plead most
ludicrously and importunately for these warm woollen shoes. Some of
them get very cunning at their work, and shirk from doing their share of
the pulling; and yet, to avoid discovery, will appear to be doing more
work than any other dog in the train.
But this dog travelling was hard work at best; and dogs, as well as
their master, were always glad when the long journeys were ended and a
welcome rest for a little while could be taken, to heal up the wounds
and frost bites, and gather strength for the next trip.
Good was accomplished, and that was the great reward for all the risks
run and sufferings endured. Many for whom Christ died, would never up
to the present hour, have heard the Gospel or have seen the Book, if it
had not been for the missionary carrying it to them by the canoe in
summer, and the dog-train in winter. Thank God, many of them have heard
and have accepted gladly the great salvation thus brought to them. With
its reception into their hearts and lives, marvellous have been the
transformations. Where the devil-dance, and ghost-dance, and other
abominations, performed to the accompaniment of the conjurer's rattle or
the monotonous drumming of the medicine man, once prevailed and held the
people in a degrading superstition, the house of prayer has now been
erected, and the wilderness has become vocal with the sweet songs of
Zion. Lives once impure and sinful have been transformed by the
Gospel's power, and a civilisation real and abiding, has come in to
bless and to add to their comfort for this life, while they dwell in a
sweet and blessed assurance of life eternal in the world to come.
CHAPTER FIVE.
GOD ON THE ROCK, OR HOW THE INDIANS ARE TAUGHT TO READ THE BOOK.
The British and Foreign Bible Society, the American Bible Society, and
other kindred institutions that print and scatter the Word of God, have
been, and are, of incalculable benefit to the missionaries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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