Page:Alaska days with John Muir.djvu/72

62 "Why, men," I cried, "what's wrong? What brings you here?"

"We want you play (pray)," answered Matthew. I brought them into the house, and, putting on my clothes and lighting the lamp, I set about to find out the trouble. It was not easy. They were greatly excited and frightened. "We scare. All Stickeen scare; plenty cly. We want you play God; plenty play." By dint of much questioning I gathered at last that the whole tribe were frightened by a mysterious light waving and flickering from the top of the little mountain that overlooked Wrangell; and they wished me to pray to the white man's God and avert dire calamity. "Some miner has camped there," I ventured. An eager chorus protested; it was not like the light of a camp-fire in