ult? Come, man, don't be soft; get
ready, and go along with us."

"Besides," added the accountant, "I don't mean to come back to-night.
To-morrow, you know, is a holiday, so we can camp out in the snow after
visiting the traps, have our supper, and start early in the morning to
search for ptarmigan."

"Well, I will go," said Hamilton, after this account of the pleasures
that were to be expected; "I am exceedingly anxious to learn to shoot
birds on the wing."

"Bless me! have you not learned that yet?" asked the doctor, in affected
surprise, as he sauntered out of his bedroom to relight his pipe.

The various bedrooms in the clerks' house were ranged round the hall,
having doors that opened directly into it, so that conversation carried
on in a loud voice was heard in all the rooms at once, and was not
unfrequently sustained in elevated tones from different apartments, when
the occupants were lounging, as they often did of an evening, in their
beds.

"No," said Hamilton, in reply to the doctor's question, "I have not
learned yet, although there were a great many grouse in the part of
Scotland where I was brought up. But my aunt, with whom I lived, was so
fearful of my shooting either myself or some one else, and had such an
aversion to firearms, that I determined to make her mind easy, by
promising that I would never use them so long as I remained under her
roof."

"Quite right; very dutiful and proper," said the doctor, with a grave,
patronising air.

"Perhaps you'll fall in with more _fox_ tracks of the same sort as the
one you gave chase to this morning," shouted the skipper, from Wilson's
room.

"Oh! there's hundreds of them out there," said the accountant; "so let's
off at once."

The trio now proceeded to equip themselves for the walk. Their costumes
were peculiar, and merit description. As they were similar in the chief
points, it will suffice to describe that of our friend Harry.

On his head he wore a fur cap made of otter-skin, with a flap on each
side to cover the ears, the frost being so intense in these climates
that without some such protection they would inevitably freeze and fall
off.

As the nose is constantly in use for the purposes of respiration, it is
always left uncovered to fight with the cold as it best can; but it is a
hard battle, and there is no doubt that, if it were possible, a nasal
covering would be extremely pleasant. Indeed, several desperate efforts
_have_ been made