They made excellent headway, and were favoured with a season of good
weather, and like the barometer Bob's spirits rose. But he dared to
plan nothing beyond the present action. A hundred times he had planned
and pictured the home-coming, but each time Fate, or the will of a
Providence that he could not understand, had intervened, and with the
crushing of each new hope and the wiping out of each delightful
picture that his imagination drew, he decided to look not into the
future, but do his best in the present and trust to Providence for the
rest, for, as he expressed it,
"Th' Lard's makin' His own plans an' He's not wantin' me t' be
meddlin' wi' un, an' so He's not lettin' me do th' way I lays out t'
do, an' I'll be makin' no more plans, but takin' things as they comes
along."
In this frame of mind he held the vessel steadily to her course and
kept a constant lookout for land or a sail, and on the morning of the
third day after the release from the ice pack was rewarded by a shout
from Netseksoak announcing land at last. Eagerly he looked, and in the
distance, dimly, but still there, appeared the shore in low, dark
outline against the horizon.
Towards noon a sail was sighted, and late in the afternoon they passed
within hailing distance of a fishing schooner bound down north.
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