f the
little dog made the men the more careful, and so it was noon ere the end
of the pond was reached and about half of this work was completed.

Dinner was ready for all when they returned to the camp. The boys were
hungry and the cold had helped to sharpen their appetites.

"How is it?" said Sam, "that I find myself picking out the fattest part
of the meat and hardly caring to eat anything else?"

"That is," said Mr Ross, "because you are in first-class health. And
Nature, true to her instincts, is giving you and the rest of us the
craving for just the kind of food that is now best adapted to our
requirements. Fat food has more heat in it than any other kind, and so
that which you here crave is that which is really the most suitable.
Living as we now are, day and night, out in the open air in this sharp
cold weather, we require much more heat to keep us up to our normal
temperature than if we were inside of the warm walls of Sagasta-weekee."

When dinner was ended the party returned to the pond, and the work of
discovering and destroying the remaining beavers' kitchens went on all
the afternoon. The following night the two Indian hunters, upon whom so
much depended, did not take any sleep, but with their heavy pounders
kept on the alert against the efforts of the clever beavers. When they
returned to the camp for a hasty breakfast in the morning they reported
that they had had a very busy night, as the beavers seemed to have
become possessed with the idea that an attack was soon to be made upon
them in their house. The result was they were very active all night,
and persistent in their efforts to break through the new ice as it
formed, and thus, if possible, keep some of their kitchens available in
case of need. Some were so bold that if the Indians had been so
inclined they could easily have speared them, as they so bravely charged
the new ice with their heads and broke it up. They said that at that
largest kitchen, which they so nearly overlooked, the beavers made their
most persistent attacks. At times as many as a half dozen would
together strike bravely at the ice. However, they thought that they had
now succeeded in getting every place frozen air-tight and they could
safely begin the work of attack upon the house, so that they would be
ready by to-morrow to begin the capture of the beaver.

Axes and ice chisels were the powerful tools required to-day. Beginning
at the shore on each side of the be