Page:Life with the Esquimaux - 1864 - Volume 1.djvu/68

Rh cent.! And when the Esquimaux, to some scores of persons, arrived on board, they found themselves partly ruined instead of being enriched. Our Sterry and Smith had discovered their mistake, and thus many an Esquimaux, who, like several white men, had invested his all in that sort of paper currency at high figures, found himself almost beggared. Directly Sampson came on board, he was met by Smith at the gangway, and the following took place, to the dismay of the numerous new traders:

Taking the "cussed" bill from his pocket and handing it to Sampson, Smith said, "No good; too little money for four pounds tobacco." Sampson, with honest face, looked Smith in the eye, and replied, "He be good;" which really was true—good for its face, sex skilling, equivalent to about three cents federal coin. But Sterry, who had joined, now insisted, in as good "Husky" (Esquimaux) language as he could command, that "too little money for good deal tobacco," and he held up his finger of one hand, a thumb and all his fingers of the other. Sampson now understood, and woefully but honestly said, "I go get tobacco and bring it back." Smith handed him the bill, but Sampson at once told him to keep it until he should return. "No," said Smith, "take it along with you. I trust you. I see you're honest, and wish to do what is right. It's Sterry's fault," he added, afterwards, "or I should not have been caught so. But, if I never get my tobacco again, I don't care. I've learned a good lesson, and that is, not to deal in 'Husky' bank-stock. I'm now a Jackson man. D—n all banks, except that of Newfoundland, where I hope yet to catch more cod on my way to and from these parts."

Need I say that the Esquimaux had to return on shore very crestfallen with their disappointment? Who would not have been, especially after investing in stocks, as many of them had done? To finish the history of this affair, I may as well add here that, in a few days after this, "Sampson," with all his family and his friends, left Holsteinborg for some other place. Smith