portant part;--the boat was
simply a long box with seats across it. The rudder, which was an oar
fixed in the stern, had a sharp iron blade which would dig into the ice.
The craft was rigged as a schooner, and had a very creditable
appearance. A long pole with an iron head helped to steer her and to
put her about.

With eager haste she was launched on the glass-like expanse. "Let us
stand across to D'Arcy and astonish him," cried Harry. "We can carry
him the invitation to spend Christmas-day with us." There were no
dissentient voices. Philip took the helm, Harry managed the head-sails,
Charley the main. The wind was on the quarter. The sails could not be
hoisted till they were ready to start, as the ice offering no
resistance, she would either have blown over, or run away before the
wind. Philip was not quite so sanguine of success as his brothers. The
word was given--Harry shoved round the head of the strange-looking
craft, and far enough off to allow the rudder full play. The sails were
hoisted--the sheets hauled aft--a fresh breeze filled them, and to the
delight of her architects, away she shot in splendid style. She
answered her helm admirably. It seemed but a few minutes before
D'Arcy's clearing hove in sight. Philip fired off his gun to draw his
friend's attention to them, and they had only time to haul down their
sails before, with the impetus the craft had attained, she glided up to
the landing-place, and sent them all tumbling forward, as she made a
bold attempt to run up the bank, only prevented by Harry with his
iron-shod pole.

D'Arcy required no great pressing to embark with them. They all looked,
they declared, like veritable Arctic voyagers, with their fur caps,
flaps over their ears, and bearskin and buffalo-skin coats, kept in by
sashes or belts. The settlement was first to be visited. Such a craft
as theirs had never been seen there, and created no little interest;
though on Lake Ontario, before Toronto, ice-boats of a more elegant
construction are constantly used when the ice will allow of it before
the snow falls.

The store was visited, and commissions, the list of which filled two
columns of Philip's note-book, were executed, and then, with a
considerable addition to their lading, they once more got under way.
They had now to beat back; but the boat lay closer to the wind than if
she had been in water, and though she made some lee-way, they beat back
in a wonderfully short spa