The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1884-08-08
SELECT STORY.
JENS, TIE KAYAKER'

coast there was none better than Jens,
of Naparsok. And when he came to
the great settlement OF Sukkertopen he
was everywhere welcomed, because
even the children told how he had
gone through the hard West wind and
the drift ice and saved the life of |
Apuluse, best of all providers In our
place. |
He was tall and strong, and did not
walk so stupid as many of the kaya-
kers who thought much of themselves
All day he would hunt for seals and
even Tor the nepokak whale. Never
had child or woman without provid
er gone from his house unfed. Only
he would sometimes send men away,
because this, he said, would teach them
to hunt
Jens had always coffee and tobacco
and, it was quite believed, silver mou-
ey put aside. Many times the whale
ships anchored by Naparsok, and Jens
worked all hours to win goods and
coins. Thus his fame spread among
all the people, and from Naparsok to
KaDgamint no maiden would have re-
fused to become his wife. But they all
knew that he loved Else, whose father,
long dead, had become Dane, and
who lived with her mother in the old
house the father built. She was stran-
ger than any woman we had ever seen,
and would not row in the umiak, or
fetch fuel, or eat like her mothers
race. But when Maria, in spirit of
jealousy it was said, made complaint
to the Parissok that she was idle and
proud, many came to tell of seaweed
she had gathered for them, and dry
berries and moss TO keep them when
the ice had driven the seals away from
the kayaks. Even from Unmak, the
island in the West, that looked so tall
and far from Else's home, came wo-
man we have seen two years before,
who cried very much to hear these
words of her, because it was Else who
had brought food to her all the cold
winter of 1856 and talked so pleasant
ly that she forgot the hunger and
cold.
We were glad to have Else love
Jens, and no one but jealous girls
could speak i'll about her. She was
small and had yellow hair, although
1S years old, and such blue eyes that
some said they come from looking at
the moss flowers which she loved to
find in spring.
Jens, was always proud of her, and
everybody said they were fine couple
as they walked together to the great
stone church of Sukkertopen. They
had both learned to read of the Mora
vians and could write to each other.
But this was seldom, because Jens
would come two or three times month
to see Else, and although he could stop
but one day she seemed so happy that
never dared the evil Kivigstoks to ap-
pear before her. She did not believe
in them at all, and only thought of the
good spirits that seemed TO love her
and make her glad.
But one day she was seen in tears,
coming from the shore, after Jens had
gone in his kayack to Naparsok. We
did not know why it was then, but now
we can tell it, hearing it so many
times. She had promised to be mar
lied when the summer came, and from
that time was very quiet and busy in
her house. There was one time after
this when Jens had not been seen for
three weeks, and there was fear for his
sake. Then he came at last, having
no excuse and not seeming so bright
and pleasant as he ought.
| This Else saw before us all, and
could not understand it. But when he
was going away he wished, at the
store, to light his tobacco and sought
for it in the hood of his jacket. When
| he did this Else waited and saw that a
paper fell from it and blew to the
ground. Jens saw it also, and would
gladly have put it back without show
ing to Else. Yet he could not, because
she ran to bring it back, very joyously,
as it huttered along the shore like a
butterfly.
| At last she caught it and then stood
still as if great pain had come upon
her, and when she saw Jens running to
her, and with . hungry look plucking
away the paper, she trembled like the
little children when we tell tales of the
Anghiaks and of their ice kayaks steer.
ing through the drifts and bergs with
the souls of drowning men.
She had seen a woinan's face, very
beautiful, with large evil eyes looking
softly for the hearts OF men, and that
she had her neck and shoulders bare
as no woman in Greenland would dare
to be. The name was below, and af.
terwards she remembered the Englisf
letters and wrote them, hoping one
day to know her life. These are the let
ters--C-A-P-I-L-L-I-N-E.
| Very long black hair the woman
had, and, straugest of all, she was
brushing it and Oiling it with oil from
a bottle marked with her name.
Nothing of this could we now un
derstand, nor did Else, only that Jens
stood strangely before her, and the evi
eyes had drawn away his heart. Ther
she held her hand to him, and asked
for the paper that she might burn il
| anu tet Hlil Tree. Dut JenS WOulu not
and walked sullen and cold to the
beach
This is why Else cried as she cam'
to her home that day.
Many weeks after then, when W,
had not seen Jens in all the time
Apuluse came from Naparsok and tolC
us that he had gone from there sine,
he was at Sukkertopen, and no on,
knew where he went. 1t was said tha
old Karen who walked with lone
staff, and was marked with figures ol
her arms and breast, had seen the Ki
1vigtocks climbing in the ice blocks an,
aiming their pointing weapons toward
his house, and Karen held him TO
dead, and feared to look upon his oil
path that still ran to the shore.
But his kayak was gone and in hi
house the Parissok found neither mon
ey nor food, nor anything but small
piece of sealskin many times wrappe,
with tendons and marked with tn
name of Else, This Apuluse gave int
her hands and it was gold, but we di
not know it then, nor would Else us