When Bobby had eaten heartily and his eyes grew heavy with sleep he was undressed and tucked away into bed, with Mrs.Abel lying by his side for a little, crooning an Eskimo lullaby before she washed her dishes.

And at length, when the dishes were washed, and all was made snug for the night, Abel took down, as was his custom, the Bible, and read by the flickering light, and he and Mrs.Abel sang a hymn, and knelt in family devotion, before they joined the sleeping Bobby in their bed.
Abel Zachariah's nearest neighbor was Edward Norman, commonly known as Skipper Ed, a sailor-man who had come to the coast many years before in a fishing vessel, and when his vessel sailed away Skipper Ed had remained behind to cast his lot with the Eskimos.

At the head of Abel's bay and a mile from Abel's home, he took up the life of hunter and fisherman, and in due time learned to speak the Eskimo language.

Here Skipper Ed lived with his little partner, as he called him--Jimmy Sanderson, a husky lad of seven years.
Jimmy was an orphan.

His mother died when he was so young that he could scarcely remember her at all.