a turn round of a few
hundred yards to show you how. The chief thing you have to guard
against is treading with one shoe on the edge of the other, at the same
time you must not straddle. Just pass the inner edge of one shoe over
the inner edge of the other, and walk very much as if you had no
snow-shoes on at all--so."

He stepped off at a round pace, the broad and long shoes keeping him so
well on the surface of the snow that he sank only a few inches.

"Why, it seems quite easy," observed the captain.

"Remarkably so," said Paul.

"Anybody can do that," cried Oliver.

"Now then, up anchor--here goes!" said the captain.

He stepped out valiantly; took the first five paces like a trained
walker; tripped at the sixth step, and went headlong down at the
seventh, with such a wild plunge that his anxious son, running hastily
to his aid, summarily shared his fate. Paul burst into an
uncontrollable fit of laughter, lost his balance, and went down--as the
captain said--stern foremost!

It was a perplexing commencement, but the ice having been broken, they
managed in the course of a few hours to advance with only an occasional
fall, and, before the next day had closed, walked almost as easily as
their guide.

This was so far satisfactory. Our three travellers were quite charmed
with their proficiency in the new mode of progression, when a sudden
thaw set in and damped not only their spirits but their shoes. The
netting and lines became flabby. The moccasins, with which Hendrick had
supplied them from the bundle he carried for his own use, were reduced
to something of the nature of tripe. The damp snow, which when rendered
powdery by frost had fallen through the net-work of the shoes, now fell
upon it in soft heaps and remained there, increasing the weight so much
as to wrench joints and strain muscles, while the higher temperature
rendered exertion fatiguing and clothing unbearable.

"I wonder how long I can stand this without my legs coming off," said
poor Oliver, giving way at last to a feeling of despair.

"Seems to me to get hotter and hotter," growled his father, as he wiped
the perspiration from his face with the tail of his coat--having lost
the solitary handkerchief with which he had landed.

"I'm glad the thaw is so complete," said Hendrick, "for it may perhaps
clear away the snow altogether. It is too early for winter to begin in
earnest. I would suggest now that we encamp again for a few days,