iscouraged, the sweat of
travel freezing on him, must still address himself to the task of making
a home in the wilderness.

Again the sledge was turned on its side. Dick and May-may-gwan removed
their snow-shoes, and, using them as shovels, began vigorously to scrape
and dig away the snow. Sam unstrapped the axe and went for firewood. He
cut it with little tentative strokes, for in the intense cold the steel
was almost as brittle as glass.

Now a square of ground flanked by high snow walls was laid bare. The two
then stripped boughs of balsam with which to carpet all one end of it.
They unharnessed the dogs, and laid the sledge across one end of the
clear space, covering it with branches in order to keep the dogs from
gnawing the moose-skin wrapper. It was already quite dark.

But at this point Sam returned with fuel. At once the three set about
laying a fire nearly across the end of the cleared space opposite the
sledge. In a moment a tiny flame cast the first wavering shadows against
the darkness. Silently the inimical forces of the long day withdrew.

Shortly the camp was completed. Before the fire, impaled on sticks, hung
the frozen whitefish thawing out for the dogs. Each animal was to
receive two. The kettle boiled. Meat sizzled over the coals. A piece of
ice, whittled to a point, dripped drinking-water like a faucet. The
snow-bank ramparts were pink in the glow. They reflected appreciably the
heat of the fire, though they were not in the least affected by it, and
remained flaky to the touch. A comfortable sizzling and frying and
bubbling and snapping filled the little dome of firelight, beyond which
was the wilderness. Weary with an immense fatigue the three lay back
waiting for their supper to be done. The dogs, too, waited patiently
just at the edge of the heat, their bushy tails covering the bottoms of
their feet and their noses, as nature intended. Only Mack, the hound,
lacking this protection, but hardened to greater exposure, lay flat on
his side, his paws extended to the blaze. They all rested quietly, worn
out, apparently without the energy to move a single hair. But now Dick,
rising, took down from its switch the first of the whitefish. Instantly
every dog was on his feet. Their eyes glared yellow, their jaws
slavered, they leaped toward the man who held the fish high above his
head and kicked energetically at the struggling animals. Sam took the
dog whip to help. Between them the food was distribute