hand was on the bridle as the horse, snorting, flung up its head.

"I think it was only a jack-rabbit; and I can see the shelter now," he
said.

A few moments later he helped Miss Schuyler down, and held out his hand to
Hetty, who sprang stiffly to the ground. Then, with numbed fingers, he
broke off and struck a sulphur match, and the feeble flame showed the
refuge to which he had brought them. It was just high enough to stand in,
and had three sides and a roof of birch logs, but the front was open and
the soil inside it frozen hard as adamant. An axe and a saw stood in a
corner, and there was a hearth heaped ready with kindling chips.

"If you will wait here I'll try to get some wood," he said.

He went out and tethered the horses, and when his footsteps died away,
Miss Schuyler shivering crept closer to Hetty, who flung an arm about
her.

"It's awful, Flo--and it's my fault," she said. Then she sighed. "It would
all be so different if Larry was only here."

"Still," said Flora Schuyler, "Mr. Clavering has really behaved very well;
most men would have shown just a little temper."

"I almost wish he had--it would have been so much easier for me to have
kept mine and overlooked it graciously. Flo, I didn't mean to be
disagreeable, but it's quite hard to be pleasant when one is in the
wrong."

It was some time before Clavering came back with an armful of birch
branches, and a suspiciously reddened gash in one of his moccasins--for an
axe ground as the Michigan man grinds it is a dangerous tool for anyone
not trained to it to handle in the dark. In ten minutes he had a great
fire blazing, and the shivering girls felt their spirits revive a little
under the cheerful light and warmth. Then, he made a seat of the branches
close in to the hearth and glanced at them anxiously.

"If you keep throwing wood on, and sit there with the furs wrapped round
you, you will be able to keep the cold out until I come back," he said.

"Until you come back!" said Hetty, checking a little cry of dismay. "Where
are you going?"

"To bring a sleigh."

"But Allonby's is nearly eight miles away. You could not leave us here
three hours."

"No," said Clavering gravely. "You would be very cold by then. Still, you
need not be anxious. Nothing can hurt you here; and I will come, or send
somebody for you, before long."

Hetty sat very still while he drew on the fur mittens he had removed to
make the fire. Then, she rose suddenly.

"No