We
travelled steadily on, making good twenty miles a day at least.

The instant we arrived at a wood or other fit place for camping, some
collected wood and lighted fires, others tore down strips of bark and
branches of trees to form wigwams, while the sportsmen ranged round to
look out for game, and the scouts explored the neighbourhood to
ascertain that no enemies were lurking near. Mrs Noggin made herself
very useful in cooking our provisions, and her husband and Short helped
her. The latter had not yet recovered from his long run and the
exertions he had made to free himself, and it seemed wonderful that he
should be able to support the fatigue of travelling as well as he did.
Altogether, we led a very pleasant life; but I was not sorry, I own, to
see in the distance the stockade in which my old friends the Raggets,
and two or three other families who had associated themselves with them,
had passed the winter. We arrived just in time before the frost broke
up. After that, till the warm dry weather began, travelling would have
been very difficult. Our friends were very glad to see us all back
again safe, and gave a hearty welcome to old Short and to Noggin and his
wife. They were not people to turn up their noses at a red-skin. With
all due respect to my white friends, Mrs Noggin appeared to great
advantage alongside them. She was a very well-mannered, amiable, kind,
sweet young woman, and though some of her ways were not just quite what
a refined Englishman would admire, I do not think friend Noggin objected
to them, and they seemed as happy as possible.

We had altogether not an unpleasant time in the stockade, and we had
plenty of work in repairing the wagons and tents, and in making other
preparations for our further progress through the wild passes of the
Snowy Mountains. The travelling, barring the attacks from the
red-skins, had hitherto been easy; we were now to enter on a region wild
and rugged in the extreme, where we should have to encounter dangers
innumerable from grizzly bears, avalanches, mountain torrents, and steep
precipices, added to those we had already gone through. However, their
contemplation in no way daunted any of our party. From old Mr Ragget's
forethought and judgment, he had amply supplied his camp with provisions
before the winter set in, and the same qualities he was now exerting in
making preparations for our journey. We thus avoided many of the
disasters and miseries fr