and some flint-rock
carefully placed in a chink in the wall. The hut completed, Hal felt
relieved, for the winter seemed to hold off for our benefit.

"We chopped wood, and stacked it on one side of the wall, inside, and
then started to pile up more on the outside near the door. Some of our
food was buried in a pit just outside the hut, but Hal hung all there
was room for to the logs of the roof.

"We were feeling quite contented one night, when Hal remarked: 'Kid,
she's comin' down on us. I kin tell by the queer sounds through those
pines.'

"'Let her come. We are ready,' I laughed.

"'All but the beds. I'll have to go out now and bring in those balsam
branches I have been savin' all these days.'

"That night we slept upon our fresh balsam beds. When I rose I could not
have told whether it was twilight or dawn. The blizzard howled outside,
but Hal had a cheerful fire cracking inside."

CHAPTER XIII

A WINTER IN THE FROZEN NORTH

"For ten days that blizzard raged, and I began to think we never would
get out again. Then one morning Hal called me to see the beautiful snow.
I stretched and got up. Hal had managed to chop away some of the drift
that had piled against the door, and after some digging we squeezed
through an aperture and stood without.

"My, but it was grand! One great world of sparkling white, with drifted
mountains of snow all over. Even our hut was but a smaller drift in the
general picture. While I stood and admired, Hal brought out two pails
which we had had in the canoes, and told me how important it was to get
some water from the stream. We carried the water carefully to the hut,
and then I watched Hal set a bear trap, as well as a trap for small
game.

"The dogs enjoyed being out once more and lapped the water greedily
while we filled the buckets. We worked several hours taking wood from
outside the hut and piling it up on our depleted stack inside. Long
before we were done, I heard a distant howling, and looked toward Hal
for its meaning.

"'Wolves! They scent our meat,' he said laconically.

"We managed to fasten our door again, and sat down by the fire while the
dogs went over to their corner to sleep.

"That night the thermometer dropped to thirty degrees below zero and
stayed there for a week. Everything that could froze up solid, and the
wild beasts could catch no more fish or small game, so took long jaunts
away from their lairs to find food.

"Inside of forty-eight h