ing
was cheered by seeing the light of a bright fire shining through the
chinks between the logs of his brother's lonely cabin. He was received
with the utmost cordiality. Even his hardy pioneer brother listened
with astonishment to the narrative of the perils he had surmounted and
the sufferings he had endured. After the refreshment of a warm supper,
Crockett wrapped himself in a bearskin, and lying down upon the floor,
with his feet to the fire, slept the sweet, untroubled sleep of a babe.
In the morning he awoke as well as ever, feeling no bad consequences
from the hardships of the preceding day.

The next morning a freezing gale from the north wailed through the
snow-whitened forest, and the cold was almost unendurable. The earnest
persuasions of his brother and his wife induced him to remain with them
for the day. But, with his accustomed energy, instead of enjoying the
cosey comfort of the Fireside, he took his rifle, and went out into the
woods, wading the snow and breasting the gale. After the absence of an
hour or two, he returned tottering beneath the load of two deer, which
he had shot, and which he brought to the cabin on his shoulders. Thus
he made a very liberal contribution to the food of the family, so that
his visit was a source of profit to them, not of loss.

All the day, and during the long wintry night, the freezing blasts blew
fiercely, and the weather grew more severely cold. The next morning his
friends urged him to remain another day. They all knew that the water
would be frozen over, but not sufficiently hard to bear his weight, and
this would add greatly to the difficulty and the danger of his return.
It seemed impossible that any man could endure, on such a day, fording
a swollen stream, a mile in breadth, the water most of the way up to
his waist, in some places above his head, and breaking the ice at every
step. The prospect appalled even Crockett himself. He therefore decided
to remain till the next morning, though he knew that his family would
be left in a state of great anxiety. He hoped that an additional day
and night might so add to the thickness of the ice that it would bear
his weight.

He therefore shouldered his musket and again went into the woods on a
hunt. Though he saw an immense bear, and followed him for some
distance, he was unable to shoot him. After several hours' absence, he
returned empty-handed.

Another morning dawned, lurid and chill, over the gloomy forest. Agai