  We compute the chiral corrections to octet baryon axial currents through
${\cal O}(p^3)$ in heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory, including both
octet and decuplet baryon intermediate states. We include the latter in a
consistent way by using the small scale expansion. We find that, in contrast to
the situation at ${\cal O}(p^2)$, there exist no cancellations between octet
and decuplet contributions at ${\cal O}(p^3)$. Consequently, the ${\cal
O}(p^3)$ corrections spoil the expected scaling behavior of the chiral
expansion. We discuss this result in terms of the $1/N_c$ expansion. We also
consider the implications for determination of the strange quark contribution
to the nucleon spin from polarized deep inelastic scattering data.
