  We analyze the octet baryon masses and the pion--nucleon $\sigma$--term in
the framework of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. In contrast to
previous investigations, we include {\it all} terms up-to-and-including
quadratic order in the light quark masses. The pertinent low--energy constants
are fixed from resonance exchange. This leaves as the only free parameter the
baryon mass in the chiral limit, $\krig{m}$. We find $\krig{m} = 749 \pm
125$~MeV together with $\sigma_{\pi N} (0) = 48 \pm 10$ ~MeV. We discuss
various implications of these results.
