our great
commander-in-chief. Then I'd fly away back into the West and South, and
I'd hover over Wareville. I'd see our own people, every last little one
of them. They might take a shot at me, not knowing who I was, but I'd
be so high up in the air no bullet could reach me. Then I'd come soaring
back here to you fellows."

"That would shorely be a grand trip, Paul," said Shif'less Sol, "an' I
wouldn't mind takin' it in myself. But fur the present we'd better busy
our minds with the warnin's the wild fowl are givin' us, though we're
well fixed fur a house already. It's cu'rus what good homes a handy man
kin find in the wilderness."

The predictions of the wild fowl were true. A few days later heavy
clouds rolled up in the southwest, and the five watched them, knowing
what they would bring them. They spread to the zenith and then to the
other horizon, clothing the whole circle of the earth. The great flakes
began to drop down, slowly at first, then faster. Soon all the trees
were covered with white, and everything else, too, except the dark
surface of the lake, which received the flakes into its bosom as they
fell.

It snowed all that day and most of the next, until it lay about two feet
on the ground. After that it turned intensely cold, the surface of the
snow froze, and ice, nearly a foot thick, covered the lake. It was not
possible to travel under such circumstances without artificial help, and
now Tom Ross, who had once hunted in the far North, came to their help.
He showed them how to make snowshoes, and, although all learned to use
them, Henry, with his great strength and peculiar skill, became by far
the most expert.

As the snow with its frozen surface lay on the ground for weeks, Henry
took many long journeys on the snowshoes. Sometimes be hunted, but
oftener his role was that of scout. He cautioned his friends that he
might be out-three or four days at a time, and that they need take no
alarm about him unless his absence became extremely long. The winter
deepened, the snow melted, and another and greater storm came, freezing
the surface, again making the snowshoes necessary. Henry decided now to
take a scout alone to the northward, and, as the others bad long since
grown into the habit of accepting his decisions almost without question,
he started at once. He was well equipped with his rifle, double barreled
pistol, hatchet, and knife, and he carried in addition a heavy blanket
and some jerked venison. He