to the island.

CHAPTER III.

SNOW SHOES, SKIS AND SWAMP SHOES.

The next day, Sunday, it began to snow, and we realized that our chance
of skating up to Willow Clump Island was spoiled. All the afternoon it
snowed, and the next morning we woke to find the ground covered to a
depth of eight inches and snow still falling. But who ever heard of a
boy complaining because there was snow on the ground? Here were new
difficulties to overcome, new problems to solve, and new sports provided
for our amusement. There was no disappointment shown by any of the
members of the S. S. I. E. E. of W. C. I., as they met in the woodshed
immediately after breakfast to discuss proceedings for the day. There
seemed to be but one way of reaching the island, and that was by means
of snow shoes. Bill had only a vague idea of how snow shoes were made.

CHAIR SEAT SNOW SHOE.

[Illustration: Fig. 22. Chair Seat Snow Shoe]

The first pair was made from a couple of thin wooden chair seats which
we found in the shed. They proved quite serviceable, being very light
and offering a fairly large bearing surface. The chair seats were
trimmed off at each side to make the shoes less clumsy, and a loop of
leather was fastened near the center of each shoe, in which the toe
could be slipped. This shoe possessed the disadvantage of being too flat
and of picking up too much snow when used.

BARREL STAVE SNOW SHOE.

[Illustration: Fig. 23. Barrel Stave Snow Shoe.]

Another pair of shoes was made from barrel staves. At first one stave
was made to serve for a shoe, but we found that two staves fastened
together with a pair of wooden cleats were much better. Jack was the
proud inventor of these shoes and insisted that they were far more
satisfactory than the elaborate ones which were later devised.

BARREL HOOP SNOW SHOE.

[Illustration: Fig. 24. Barrel Hoop Snow Shoe.]

Now that Jack had shown his ingenuity, Fred thought it was his turn to
do something, and after mysteriously disappearing for the space of an
hour we saw him suddenly come waddling back to the shed on a pair of
barrel hoops covered with heavy canvas. He had stretched the canvas so
tightly across the hoops that they were bent to an oval shape. It was
claimed for these shoes, and with good reason, that they were not so
slippery as the barrel stave shoe, for they permitted the foot to sink
slightly into the snow.

After dinner, Dutchy came back with a book of his father's,