naked space. Of life there was not the least sign
anywhere. This appeared the very home of death and intolerable cold.
Yet at one spot, between two little, almost indistinguishable ridges of
snow, might have been noticed a tiny wisp of vapor. If one had put his
face down close to the snow, so that the vapor came between his eyes and
the light, he would have made it out quite distinctly. And it would have
certainly seemed very puzzling that anything like steam should be coming
up out of that iron-bound expanse."

Now the Child had once seen, in the depth of winter, a wreath of mist
arising from the snowy rim of an open spring, and for the life of him he
could not hold his tongue.

"It was a boiling spring," he blurted out.

Uncle Andy gazed at him for some seconds in a disconcerting silence, till
the Child felt himself no bigger than a minute.

"It was a bear," he announced at length coldly. Then he was silent again.

And the Child, mortified at having made such a bad guess, was silent too,
in spite of his pangs of curiosity at this startling assertion.

"You see," went on Uncle Andy, after he was satisfied that the Child was
not going to interrupt again, at least for the moment, "you see, under
those two ridges of frozen snow there was a little cavern-like crevice in
the rock. It was sheltered perfectly from those terrific winds which
sometimes for days together would drive screaming over the levels. And
in this crevice, at the first heavy snowfall, a big white bear had curled
herself up to sleep.

"She had had a good hunting season, with plenty of seals and salmon to
eat, and she was fat and comfortable. Though very drowsy, she did not go
quite to sleep at once, but for several days, in a dreamy half-doze, she
kept from time to time turning about and rearranging her bed. All the
time the snow was piling down into the crevice, till at last it was level
full and firmly packed. And in the meantime the old bear, in her sleepy
turnings, had managed to make herself a sort of snowhouse--decidedly
narrow, indeed, but wonderfully snug in its way. There was no room to
take exercise, of course, but that, after all, was about the last thing
she was thinking of. A day or two more and she was too fast asleep to do
anything but breathe.

"The winter deepened, and storm after storm scourged the naked plain; and
the snow fell endlessly, till the snowhouse was buried away fairly out of
remembrance. The savage cold s