othing remained but the bare
walls of bark, from which everything in the shape of furniture had been
stripped by the owners and carried with them to their wintering-grounds,
to be brought back in the spring, when they returned to make their
corn-fields and occupy their summer cabins.

Our disappointment may be better imagined than described. With heavy
hearts, we mounted and once more pursued our way, the snow again falling
and adding to the discomforts of our position. At length we halted for
the night. We had long been aware that our stock of provisions was
insufficient for another day, and here we were--nobody knew where--in
the midst of woods and prairies--certainly far from any human
habitation, with barely enough food for a slender evening's meal.

The poor dogs came whining round us to beg their usual portion, but they
were obliged to content themselves with a bare bone, and we retired to
rest with the feeling that if not actually hungry then, we should
certainly be so to-morrow.

The morrow came. Plante and Roy had a bright fire and a nice pot of
coffee for us. It was our only breakfast, for, on shaking the bag and
turning it inside out, we could make no more of our stock of bread than
three crackers, which the rest of the party insisted I should put in my
pocket for my dinner. I was much touched by the kindness of Mr. Kellogg,
who drew from his wallet a piece of tongue and a slice of fruit-cake,
which he said "he had been saving for _the lady_ since the day before,
for he saw how matters were a going."

Poor man! it would have been well if he had listened to Mr. Kinzie and
provided himself at the outset with a larger store of provisions. As it
was, those he brought with him were exhausted early in the second day,
and he had been _boarding_ with us for the last two meals.

We still had the trail to guide us, and we continued to follow it until
about nine o'clock, when, in emerging from a wood, we came upon a broad
and rapid river. A collection of Indian wigwams stood upon the opposite
bank, and, as the trail led directly to the water, it was fair to infer
that the stream was fordable. We had no opportunity of testing it,
however, for the banks were so lined with ice, which was piled up tier
upon tier by the breaking-up of the previous week, that we tried in vain
to find a path by which we could descend the bank to the water.

The men shouted again and again, in hopes some straggling inhabitant of
the villa