eep.

"How about matches? I haven't one on me," said Fred, in sudden anxiety.

Macgregor discovered four rather damp ones in his pockets; Maurice had
a dozen or more, but the snow had got into his pocket, and wet them.

They used up five matches in lighting the fire, but finally the birch
bark flared up, curling, and the spruce twigs began to crackle.

They were sure, at any rate, of a fire, and this little success raised
their spirits wonderfully. They started at once to bring in all the
loose wood they could find; but it proved to be little, for snow
covered everything except the largest logs. However, they counted on
the big spruce trunk to burn all night.

Without an axe, it was impossible to build any sort of shelter; so they
sat down close beside the fire, and huddled together to escape the
cold, which was growing hourly more piercing.

In spite of all their efforts, the fire was a poor one. The spruce
trunk proved rotten and damp, and merely smouldered and smoked. The
dead branches went off in a rapid flame, and they had to economize them
to make them last the night out.

That was a terrible night. The temperature must have gone far below
zero. A foot away from the fire, they could hardly feel its warmth;
their backs and feet were numb, and their faces smoked and scorching.

Two of the boys were tired with a long snowshoe tramp, and all of them
were hungry. Macgregor's feet were still far from being in a condition
to stand further exposure; they would have frozen again easily, and he
kept them as close to the wretched fire as possible. Sleep was out of
the question, for they would have frozen to death at six feet away from
the fire. They sat with their arms round each other, as close to the
blaze as possible, and turned now their faces and now their backs to
the warmth.

Fortunately, there was no wind. About midnight a pallid moon came up
behind light clouds. Far in the woods they heard strange, lugubrious
noises, moans, hootings, and once a shrill, savage scream.

Now and then they talked, but they were too miserable from the cold to
say much. In spite of the cold, they grew drowsy. Fred could have
gone dead asleep if he had allowed himself to. He got up, stamped, and
engaged in a rather spiritless bout of wrestling with Peter. Then they
all straggled off to try to find more wood.

Finally, that night of horror wore itself away. The light of a pale,
cold dawn began to show.

Feelin