of touching
foot to the chilling snow. The driver pulled up to breathe his horses at
the top of a hill, and to fasten under one runner a heavy chain, which,
grinding into the snow, would act as a brake on the descent.

"You're dressed pretty light," he advised; "better hoof it a ways and
get warm."

The words tipped the balance of Thorpe's decision. He descended stiffly,
conscious of a disagreeable shock from a six-inch jump.

In ten minutes, the wallowing, slipping, and leaping after the tail
of the sled had sent his blood tingling to the last of his protesting
members. Cold withdrew. He saw now that the pines were beautiful and
solemn and still; and that in the temple of their columns dwelt winter
enthroned. Across the carpet of the snow wandered the trails of her
creatures,--the stately regular prints of the partridge; the series of
pairs made by the squirrel; those of the weasel and mink, just like the
squirrels' except that the prints were not quite side by side, and
that between every other pair stretched the mark of the animal's long,
slender body; the delicate tracery of the deer mouse; the fan of the
rabbit; the print of a baby's hand that the raccoon left; the broad pad
of a lynx; the dog-like trail of wolves;--these, and a dozen others,
all equally unknown, gave Thorpe the impression of a great mysterious
multitude of living things which moved about him invisible. In a thicket
of cedar and scrub willow near the bed of a stream, he encountered one
of those strangely assorted bands of woods-creatures which are always
cruising it through the country. He heard the cheerful little chickadee;
he saw the grave nuthatch with its appearance of a total lack of humor;
he glimpsed a black-and-white woodpecker or so, and was reviled by a
ribald blue jay. Already the wilderness was taking its character to him.

After a little while, they arrived by way of a hill, over which they
plunged into the middle of the camp. Thorpe saw three large buildings,
backed end to end, and two smaller ones, all built of heavy logs, roofed
with plank, and lighted sparsely through one or two windows apiece. The
driver pulled up opposite the space between two of the larger buildings,
and began to unload his provisions. Thorpe set about aiding him, and so
found himself for the first time in a "cook camp."

It was a commodious building,--Thorpe had no idea a log structure ever
contained so much room. One end furnished space for two cooking ra