ey was about twenty miles on the hard
frozen river, covered with a crust of snow so stiff as to render
snow-shoes unnecessary; but it was hard work, for the weather was
bitterly cold. We shot--that is, Maine Mallory did--a couple of
partridges and a rabbit for our suppers, and halted early in a hemlock
wood, where there was a northerly shelter of rocks; indeed, a crevice in
the rocks was almost a cave for us, a cave where we gathered quantities
of hemlock for bedding, and built at its entrance a huge fire, which, by
night--when we had cut wood enough to last until morning, and had cooked
and eaten our game--had made a deep hot bed of ashes. It was so cold,
though, that we feared to sleep much; each took a turn at napping whilst
the other fed the fire. The wood was as quiet as the grave; not a
breath of wind; no night-bird nor prowling animal; nothing but the fine
crackling of the cold. When I watched, I almost _wished_ to see a wolf
or bear--something to come in on the ghostly, silvered circle that the
firelight illumined; something to start my congealing blood with a roar
or spring. In the morning we took to the river course again, and went
on, but resolved to try as hard as we could to reach the Indians' camp
before another night. It was twenty-seven miles, we calculated, but we
did it; and about nine o'clock heard the yelping of the Indian dogs that
sounded our approach while we were yet half a mile from the camp. We
knew the five Indians there; two came out to learn who drew near. Worn
out and benumbed with cold, we gladly gave ourselves into their hands to
be warmed and fed. They were well provided against severe cold, and
soon made us comfortable; but we were too wearied the next day to do any
hunting.

The Indians said the weather was growing colder every day, and the
head-man, a middle-aged chief, called Ollabearqui, or Trick the Bear,
told with an ominous grunt, that when the cold "grow bigger and bigger
and the winds stay asleep, then Ollabearqui is afraid."

On the second morning of our stay among the Indians four of us went out
after moose. Two, Mallory and an Indian, were to go around a mountain
to the eastward, and Ollabearqui and I were to follow a valley which
would bring us to the foot of the same mountain on the farther side,
where we agreed to meet the others. A large, gaunt, savage-faced hound
followed my Indian companion. He and I had each a rifle. We went
quickly and silently through