foot, escaped him; and if their leader began the
day's work as a sorely wounded dog, it was certain that each dog behind
him began it with one sore spot to occupy his mind withal. Inside of one
minute he had the six of them standing alertly to attention in their
respective places, waiting for their harness and itching to be off; not
by reason of any sudden access of virtue or industry in them, but
because the leader they had thought too sore and stiff to accomplish
much that day was pacing sternly up and down their rank, with fangs
bared, and the hint of a snarl in every breath he drew; ready, and
apparently rather anxious, to visit condign punishment upon the first
dog who should stir one paw a single inch from its proper place.

"Five hunderd!" shouted Jean, with his broad, cheery grin. "By gar! tha'
Jan hee's worth ten hunderd of any man's money for team-leadin'. Yes,
_sir_; an' you can say I said so. I don't care where the nex' come from;
tha' Jan, hee's masterpiece."

Jake readily admitted, when, over their pipes that night, he and Jean
came to review the day's run, that the team had worked better this day
than on any previous day in the past month.

"With double load, an' one dog short," Jean reminded him.

"That's so," said Jake. "I guess that moose-meat's put good heart into
them."

"Ah! moose-meat, hee's all right; good tack, for sure," said Jean. "But
tha's not moose-meat mushed them dogs on so fast an' trim to-day. No,
_sir_. Tha's Jan--bes' dog-musher in 'Merica to-day, now I'm tellin'
you. He don' got Beel to upset things to-day, and, by gar! you see how
he make them other dogs mush. You don't need no wheep, don't need no
musher, so's you got Jan a-leadin', now I'm tellin' you."

Jan imbued each of the other dogs with a portion of his own
inexhaustible pride in the team's perfect working. Ready to start in the
morning he would stand in the lead, pawing eagerly at the snow, his head
turning swiftly from side to side as he looked round to make sure his
followers were in order, and in his anxiety to catch the first breath of
the command to "Mush on there!"

And when the word came, with what a will those seven dogs bowed to their
work! How furiously their hard pads scrabbled at the trail, to overcome
the first inertia of the laden sled, before it gained the gliding
momentum which they would never allow it to lose for an instant until
the order came to halt! If any dog put one ounce less than the pressure