with the
cattle, a trail, a rod or more in width, would have to be broken out.
Leaving their horses at the corral, the brothers fell at the task as if
it had been a threshing floor, and their flails rang out from contact
with the icy sleet. By the time they had reached the divide it was high
noon, and the boys were wearied by the morning task. The crusted snow
lay fully six inches deep on an average, and if sustenance was rendered
the cattle, whose hungry lowing reached equally hungry boys, the icy
crust must be broken over the feeding grounds.

It looked like an impossible task. "Help me break out a few acres," said
Joel, "and then you can go back and turn out the cattle. Point them up
the broken-out trail, and bring my horse and come on ahead of the herd.
If we can break out a hundred acres, even, the cattle can nose around
and get down to the grass. It's our one hope."

The hungry cattle eagerly followed up the icy lane. By breaking out the
shallow snow, the ground was made passably available to the feeding
herd, which followed the boys as sheep follow a shepherd. Fortunately
the weather was clear and cold, and if temporary assistance could be
rendered the cattle, a few days' sunshine would bare the ground on
southern slopes and around broken places, affording ample grazing. The
flails rung until sunset, the sleet was shattered by acres, and the
cattle led home, if not sufficiently grazed, at least with
hunger stayed.

An inch of soft snow fell the following night, and it adhered where
falling, thus protecting the sleet. On the boys reaching the corrals at
an unusually early hour, a new menace threatened. The cattle were
aroused, milling excitedly in a compact mass, while outside the
inclosure the ground was fairly littered with wolf tracks. The herd,
already weakened by the severity of the winter, had been held under a
nervous strain for unknown hours, or until its assailants had departed
with the dawn. The pendulum had swung to an evil extreme; the sleet
afforded splendid footing to the wolves and denied the cattle their
daily food.

"Shall we put out poison to-night?" inquired Dell, on summing up the
situation.

"There's no open water," replied the older boy, "and to make a dose of
poison effective, it requires a drink. The bait is to be placed near
running water--those were the orders. We've got five hundred cattle here
to succor first. Open the gates."

The second day's work in the sleet proved more eff