o the stony wall. Then, with the flint and steel that every
hunter carried and laboring desperately, he managed to extract from the
flint enough sparks to set fire to the shavings, hanging over the tiny
blaze and shielding it with his body lest it go out and leave him alone
in the cold and the dark.

The flame persisted and grew, reached out, and bit into more shavings,
and then into larger pieces of dead wood that Henry presented to its
teeth. Dead leaves helped it along, and he fed to it larger and larger
sticks, until he had a splendid leaping fire, the very finest fire that
was ever built in this world, a fire that sent up many high flames, red
in the center and yellow at the edges, a fire that made great, glowing
coals in beds, capable of keeping their heat all night.

Then Henry knew that in very truth and fact he was saved. Let the wind
whistle and shriek above his head! He cared nothing for it. He took off
his wet leggings and moccasins, and dried them and his feet and legs
before the fire. The spirit of a youth returned to him. He tried to see
how near he could hold his flesh to those wonderful coals and flames
without burning it, and with the fire, which is a twin brother to life,
he felt life itself flowing anew into his body.

His vitality was so great that his strength seemed to return all at
once, and he built another fire as fine as the first, but a little
distance from it. Then he lay between the two, and was warmed on both
sides. Exposed to the double heat also, his moccasins and leggings soon
dried and he put them on again. His feeling was now one of extraordinary
comfort, and warming the turkey on the coals, he ate an abundant supper,
while he listened to the wind overhead and saw snow drop in the valley,
but not on him, where he lay well within the lee of the stone wall.

After resting awhile between the fires he began to gather wood, the
whole valley being littered with it. He did not know how long the storm
would hold him there, and he intended to have sufficient heat. He also
heaped up the wood into a species of rude wall, until no drop of snow
could blow into his cleft under the cliff, and then contemplated his
work with satisfaction. He could stay here as long as the storm lasted,
even for days, nor did he forget to give thanks once more for the
wonderful manner in which the stag had saved him. It was first the
buffaloes, then the bear and now the deer. What would it be next?

Henry let the