eed in doing so, only adds to the effect by disclosing
the pallid snow, the cold, chilling beams of the moon, the white vistas
of savage scenery, the awe-inspiring solitudes that tell of your
isolated condition, or stir up sad memories of other and far-distant
scenes. But the moment the first spark of fire sends a fitful gleam of
light upwards, these thoughts and feelings take wing and vanish. The
indistinct scenery is rendered utterly invisible by the red light, which
attracts and rivets the eye as if by a species of fascination. The deep
shadows of the woods immediately around you grow deeper and blacker as
the flames leap and sparkle upwards, causing the stems of the
surrounding trees, and the foliage of the overhanging branches, to stand
out in bold relief, bathed in a ruddy glow, which converts the forest
chamber into a snug, _home-like_ place, and fills the mind with
agreeable, _home-like_ feelings and meditations. It seems as if the
spirit, in the one case, were set loose and etherealised to enable it to
spread itself over the plains of cold, cheerless, illimitable space, and
left to dwell upon objects too wide to grasp, too indistinct to
comprehend; while, in the other, it is recalled and concentrated upon
matters circumscribed and congenial, things of which it has long been
cognisant, and which it can appreciate and enjoy without the effort of a
thought.

Some such thoughts and feelings passed rapidly through the minds of
Harry and Hamilton while the accountant struck a light and kindled a
roaring fire of logs, which he had cut and arranged there on a previous
occasion. In the middle of the space thus brilliantly illuminated, the
snow had been cleared away till the moss was uncovered, thus leaving a
hole of about ten feet in diameter. As the snow was quite four feet
deep, the hole was surrounded with a pure white wall, whose height was
further increased by the masses thrown out in the process of digging to
nearly six feet. At one end of this space was the large fire which had
just been kindled, and which, owing to the intense cold, only melted a
very little of the snow in its immediate neighbourhood. At the other
end lay a mass of flat pine branches, which were piled up so thickly as
to form a pleasant elastic couch, the upper end being slightly raised so
as to form a kind of bolster, while the lower extended almost into the
fire. Indeed, the branches at the extremity were burnt quite brown, and
some o