The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1915-12-04

Those Sisters would thry to cure even |
you if they found We half frozen on
the thrail, We pie-faced Scandinavian
freak"
The Swede was about to add to his
remarks when the Irishman, now
thoroughly aroused, stopped him.
IF We don't shut up that face of
yours" he continued menacingly, ''In
be after seem that you'll be the furst
to go to the Sisthers for repairs. Dye
understand me?"
They'll get holdings from me vor
their hospital anyhow" added Swan
berg, bitterly.
Wait til they ask We, We yellah-
haired limb of kangaroo"
Keliher had mined for gold in
Western Australia, and evoking the
marsupial was favorite pastime of
his, especially when angry. He was
now quite excited, and was clearing
the decks for action.
"If We says another word agin' those
Sisthers," he went on, ''I'll knock yer
block off. Dye understand me?'
OF course the Swede understood;
there was threat of profanity in
Keliher's words that was unmistak-
able and compelling. The big Celt
had laid down the law to Swamberg
with his tongue, and he was now quite
ready to complete the task with his
!, fists. He even threatened there and
then to turn the Swede's long and
pointed nose into a corkscrew-an
operation the latter did not seem to
take kindly to, for he quietly slipped
off to his cabin under the bluff.
Meanwhile the Sisters had not been
de, either. Owing to their somewhat
unexpected arrival in Nome before the
close of navigation, little had been
done for their reception. There was
no hospital ready to receive them; no
lodging but messroom belonging to
one of the commercial companies
However, they rented a two-story
house in the center of the camp and
fitted it out as best they could Later
in the season they began to visit the
claims in the outskirts and begged for
aims to help them to complete the
work. The Alaskan miners were gen.
erous; they opened their leathern
pokes and gladdened the hearts of the
devoted nuns with many an ounce of
/ gold-dust. Even on the creeks where
the claims had not PANIED out well no
one refused them the miners mite
no one but Carl Swamberg.
| 1t was bitterly cold afternoon
when Sister Rosalie and her COM
panion, both wrapped in fur parkees
and quite unprepared for the still
colder reception that awaited them,
knocked at the Swede's cabin under
the bluff in Anvil Gulch. The master
himself appeared.
What do you vant?" he inquired,
savagely.
"A little help to buy beds and things
| for our hospital" replied Sister
Rosalie, meekly.
holdings vor you here. Go away"
he retorted, and then closed the door.
| When March came, the sun, now
i several hours longer above the hor-
lion and growing daily stronger, be.
gan to melt the limitless fields of
snow; the minute crystals, held in
tact during the long months by the
constant low temperature, dissolved
rapidly, giving the Alaskan miners
meanwhile a spectacle they could
never forget. Defying, as it were, the
lordly orb overhead, those countless
millions of crystals, stealing its rays,
i glowed and scintillated like vast
field of diamonds, and then went out.
Nature wrought havoc with the snow
while the sun shone, but the cold
| nights froze the surface hard again,
and the miners, profiting by the sea
son of strong snow crusts, hitched up
their dog-teams and carried provisions
to their claims for miles around the
camp, in preparation for the approach
ing summers work.
i No one was buster than Swamberg.
His claim lay in the gulch just beyond
the Sinook range, and his success had
been so encouraging during the
previous season that he intended in
the coming one to turn over more
pay-dirt than ever. He had made
several safe journeys to No. / below
Discovery, but, as happened too often
to others in Northwestern Alaska. the
glare of the brilliant March sun
proved too much for his eyes. Snow
blindness, the bane of the miners In
the springtime on the Bering coast,
came upon him in its most intense
form, and left him helpless one day
with his team midway between Nome
and Sinook. To make matters worse
slight fall of snow. followed BY a
heavy wind, had blotted out the frail,
and the Swede, not yet a full-fedged