choked up by drifts. Most of the time the horses had to walk;
and sometimes the man and boy had to get out and tramp a path ahead of
the discouraged team.

"At this rate, dad, we ain't a-goin' to git home in time fer
breakfast!" exclaimed the boy, despondently. To which the man replied,
"Don't you fret, son! It'll be better goin' when we git over the rise.
You git into the pung now an' take the reins, an' let me do the
trampin'."

The boy, who was tired out, obeyed gladly. He gathered up the
reins,--and in two minutes was sound asleep. The man smiled, tucked
the blankets snugly around the sleeping form, and trudged on
tirelessly for a couple of hours, the horses floundering at his
heels. Then the drifts ceased. The man kicked the snow from his
trousers and shoe-packs, and climbed into the pung again. "We'll make
it in time fer breakfast yet!" he murmured to himself, confidently, as
the horses once more broke into a trot.

They were traversing now a high table-land, rather sparsely wooded,
and dotted here and there with towering rampikes. Suddenly from far
behind came a long, wavering cry, high-pitched and peculiarly
daunting. The horses, though they had probably never heard such a
sound before, started apprehensively, and quickened their pace. The
man reined them in firmly; but as he did so he frowned.

"I've hearn say the wolves was comin' back to these here parts," he
muttered, "now that the deer's gittin' so plenty agin! But I didn't
more'n half-believe it afore!"

Presently the grim sound came again. Then the man once more awoke the
boy.

"Here's somethin' to interest you, lad," said he, as the latter put a
mittened fist to sleepy eyes. "Hark to that there noise! Did you ever
hear the like?"

The boy listened, paled slightly, and was instantly wide awake.

"Why, that's like what I've read about!" he exclaimed. "It must be
wolves!"

"Nary a doubt of it!" assented his father, again reining the uneasy
horses down to a steady gait. "They've followed the deer back, and
now, seems like their a-follerin' us!"

The boy looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, carelessly:

"Oh, well, I reckon there's deer a-plenty for 'em, an' they're not
likely to come too nigh us, lookin' fer trouble. I reckon they ain't
much like them Roosian wolves we read about, eh, dad?"

"I reckon," agreed the father. At the same time, it was with a certain
satisfaction that he set his foot on his trusty axe, amid the straw in
the b