ily be. I woke up early, half cramped with the
weight of the bed-clothes, I had piled on so many; but I was none too
warm, either. I put out my drawbridge and got back to the hotel and
started the fire. Outside the thermometer stood close to thirty-five
degrees below zero, but the sun was rising bright and dazzling into a
clear, blue sky.

Kaiser's leg was no better, and Pawsy was still nervous and kept
looking at the windows as if she expected wolves to bolt in
head-first; and I did not blame her much. It seemed to me that the
wolves had howled most of the night. I only wished that the timber
beyond Frenchman's Butte and the coteaux and the Chain of Lakes were a
hundred miles away, for without them there would have been no wolves,
or nothing but little prairie wolves or coyotes, which, of course,
don't amount to much.

As soon as my own fire was started I went about town and got the
others going; this I called "bringing the town to life." As I stood at
the depot and watched the long columns of smoke from the chimneys it
scarcely seemed that I was the only inhabitant of the town. After I
had had breakfast and done up the work at the barn, I sat down in the
office and was glad enough that it was Sunday. I suddenly thought of a
way to spend the day, and in ten minutes I was at something which I
did every Sunday while I stayed at Track's End.

This was to write a letter to my mother, stamp and direct it, and drop
it in the slot of the post-office door. Of course it would not go
very soon, but if nothing happened it would go some time; and, I
thought, if I am killed or die in this dreadful place, the letters may
be the only record she will ever have of my life here.

I accordingly set to work and wrote her a long letter, telling her
fully everything that had happened so far, but without much of my
fears for the future. I told her I was sorry that I had got myself
into such a scrape, but that, now being in, I meant to go through it
the best I could.

The next morning, Monday, I began work on my fortifications, by which
name I included everything that would help to keep off invaders. I
started two more fires, one in Townsend's store, at the south end of
the street, and the other in Joyce's store, at the north end of town
and nearly opposite the harness shop. I made another visit to
Taggart's, and found some barrels of kerosene, which I needed, and
more ammunition. Still another thing was a number of door-keys, so
that