They had probably some little business to transact with those officials before starting for their homes, often many miles from the colony, and it might be of the greatest importance to them to get away as soon as possible. If the weather happened to look threatening, every minute would be more than precious; but there they would stand waiting, as immovable as ever, and to all appearance as indifferent.
If I asked them if they were going to start, they only answered: “I don’t know. Perhaps, if the weather don’t get worse,� or something to that effect; but I never once heard the smallest murmur of impatience.
The following occurrence, for which my informant vouches, illustrates this side of their character:
An inspector at Godthaab sent a boat’s crew into the Ameralik Fiord to mow grass for his goats. They remained a long time away, and no one could understand what had become of them. At last they returned, and when the inspector asked why they had been so long, they answered that when they got to the place the grass was too short, so they had to settle down and wait till it grew.[Pg 54]
THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS.
Death Follows Evil Dream.
Having dreamed a tramp had entered her home and killed her, Minnie J. Stephens, seventeen years old, daughter of John Stephens, former postmaster of Attalla, Ala., and prominent in social circles, secured her father’s pistol and examined it to see that it was in order for use in case a tramp appeared. While examining the weapon, it was discharged, the ball puncturing the intestines a dozen times and causing a fatal wound.