teful warmth penetrated every fiber of him and
it seemed strange now that he should have been in despair only an
hour ago. Life was a wonderful and brilliant thing. There was
no ache in his bones, and the first tingling of his hands, ears,
and nose he had relieved with the application of wet snow. Now
he felt only comfort.

After a while Dick ate again of his jerked buffalo meat, and with
the food, warmth, and rest, he began to feel sleepy. He plunged
into the snow, hunted out more wood to add to his reserve, and
then, with the two blankets, the Indian's and his own, wrapped
about him, sat down where the heat of the two fires could reach
him from either side, and with a heap of the wood as a rest for
his back.

Dick did not really intend to go to sleep, but he had been
through great labors and dangers and had been awake long. He
drew up one of the blankets until it covered all of his head and
most of his face, and began to gaze into the coals of the larger
fire. The wind--and it was now so cold that the surface of the
snow was freezing--still whistled over him, but the blanket
protected his head from its touch. The whistle instead increased
his comfort like the patter of rain on a roof to him who is dry
inside.

The fire had now burned down considerable and the beds of coals
were large and beautiful. They enveloped Dick in their warmth
and cheer and began to pain splendid words of hope for him. He
could read what they said in glowing letters, but the singular
feeling of peace and rest deepened all the while. He wondered
vaguely that one could be so happy.

The white snow became less white, the red fire less red, and a
great gray mist came floating down over Dick's eyes. Up rose a
shadowy world in which all things were vague and wavering. Then
the tired lids dropped down, the gray mist gave way to a soft
blackness, and Dick sank peacefully into the valley of sleep.

The boy slept heavily hour after hour, with his hooded head sunk
upon his knees, and his rifle lying across his lap, while over
him shrieked the coldest wind of the great northwestern plains.
The surface of the frozen ground presented a gleaming sheet like
ice, over which the wind acquired new strength and a sharper
edge, but the boy in his alcove remained safe and warm. Now and
then a drift of fine snowy particles that would have stung like
small shot was blown over the barrier, but they only stuck upon
the thick folds of the blankets a