but the shoes were made and then another equally as great
confronted the two boys--to learn how to use them.

Each boy put on his pair at the same time and went forth on the
snow, which was now packed and hard. Albert promptly caught
one of his shoes on the other, toppled over, and went down
through the crust of the snow, head first. Dick, although in
an extremely awkward situation himself, managed to pull his
brother out and put him in the proper position, with his head
pointing toward the sky instead of the earth. Albert brushed
the snow out of his eyes and ears, and laughed.

"Good start, bad ending," he said. "This is certainly the
biggest pair of shoes that I ever had on, Dick. They feel at
least a mile long to me."

"I know that mine are a mile long," said Dick, as he, too,
brought the toe of one shoe down upon the heel of the other,
staggered, fell over sideways, but managed to right himself in
time.

"It seems to me," said Albert, "that the proper thing to do is to
step very high and very far, so you won't tangle up one shoe with
the other."

"That seems reasonable," said Dick, "and we'll try it."

They practiced this step for an hour, making their ankles ache
badly. After a good rest they tried it for another hour, and
then they began to make progress. They found that they got along
over the snow at a fair rate of speed, although it remained an
awkward and tiring gait. Nevertheless, one could travel an
indefinite distance, when it was impossible to break one's way
far through five or six feet of packed snow, and the shoes met a
need.

"They'll do," said Albert; "but it will never be like walking on
the solid earth in common shoes."

Albert was right. Their chief use for these objects, so
laboriously constructed, was for the purpose of visiting their
traps, some of which were set at least a dozen miles away. They
wished also to go back to the shanty and see that it was all
right. They found a number of valuable furs in the traps, but
the bark shanty had been almost crushed in by the weight of the
snow, and they spent sometime strengthening and repairing it.

In the course of these excursions their skill with the snowshoes
increased and they were also able to improve upon the construction,
correcting little errors in measurement and balance. The snow
showed no signs of melting, but they made good progress, nevertheless,
with their trapping, and all the furs taken were of the highest
qu