AN ANSWER TO PRAYER

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 3, 1896

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 22, No. 48.

AN ANSWER TO PRAYER.

IGNAUS, an Arctic mail-carrier, whose six dogs died in one night from some poison in the frozen fish which was part of the supplies, was a hundred miles from a trading post and the cold 40 degrees below zero.

Broken-hearted after his dogs, the poor fellow would have given up and died had he not a wife and little babe awaiting him at the end of his route, but even the thought of those who were dear to him failed sometimes to keep his mind from wandering.

Before, he had the variation of talking to the dogs, who seemed almost human. Now, no sound except the crackling of the ice, no sight but snow, snow, snow, in great stretches of dazzling whiteness; its crisp crust, many feet thick, seemed as solid as a glacier.

At last the poor fellow felt that he could not bear it any longer. He had lightened the load on his sledge, and drew it after him by day, and slept in his fur bag on it at night.

He cried to the Great Father in agony of pleading, "O, leave me not alone so long; send some one, O, send some one, or I die!"

Once more at night he lay down in his fur bag and slept. But what was this pushing him over? Ignaus opened his eyes, and there stood over him a great bear. Evidently the brute was curious; he had never seen anything like this before. Strangely enough Ignaus was not frightened. He rose and fed the bear with frozen fish from the sledge, the creature acted like a great wild dog, and when satisfied lay down on his side while Ignaus satisfied his own hunger; then when he started on his walk again the bear trotted beside him.

Surely the Great Father sent him, thought Ignaus. At night again he fed the bear, and the two lay down again side by side, the warmth of the shaggy brute putting new life into Ignaus.

When within five miles of the trading post, suddenly the bear turned toward a great forest in the distance and Ignaus saw him no more.

When he reached the post, the president, when he heard how Ignaus had come across the vast solitudes of ice and snow without his dogs, said, "He is the bravest man of the north; surely the good God sent the bear to save his reason."—Home Guard.