oor, but
these things could be remedied.

"The little woman had planned it all before we knew it. She had asked
and gained consent of the owners before she opened her story up to us.
The baggage then in the cabin was to be piled in one corner, the
windows were to be mended as well as possible along with the chimney in
the middle of the roof; and for a trifling consideration each month we
were to have the use of the building. It was a god-send to three men
only partly sheltered by canvas in January, latitude sixty-five; and if
you don't believe me, boys, just try tents yourselves next winter, and
find out.

"Did we spend the remainder of the winter in that old school-house? You
bet we did. After puttin' considerable time on the old chimney, makin'
some new stove-pipe and a patent damper of our own from coal-oil cans,
and usin' the sides of some of the same in place of glass in the
windows, we did get fixed some sort of comfortable. Anyhow, we had a
house over our heads that could not blow down in a blizzard, and a solid
door which kept out mad dogs at night. To be sure, when the spring rains
came, the roof of turf, upon which the grass began to grow, leaked in
several places; but we spread our canvas tent over it, weighted it down
with stones at the corners, and got along finely.

"The gist of my story is still to come. One day along in February the
little woman sent for me. She wanted to see me very particular, the
messenger said. When I saw her a few minutes later her eyes were shinin'
like stars in the night time. She wanted me to go with another man to
stake a creek about fifteen miles to the north of us. She had heard from
some source that the creek was good.

"Would I go the next day if she furnished the outfit? Of course I said,
yes, and our plans were hastily laid for the next day. We had some
trouble to get good dogs for the trip, and before our preparations were
completed the whole camp was onto our racket and wanted to go along.

"Now, you know on such occasions, above all others, one does not want
the whole country at one's heels, so we tried our best to shake them. We
postponed our trip until the second day; the women in the meantime
gettin' our grub cooked. We then took the bells off our dog collars and
packed our sleds behind closed doors; but it was no go. In spite of all
our precautions three dog-teams followed our trail as we slipped
stealthily out of camp at midnight. The moon shone brightly and t