ds
in winter suddenly presented itself.

About one o'clock it began to snow--little icy pellets that rattled down
through the tree tops like fine shot or sifted sand. The chill, damp
wind sighing drearily across the forest presaged a northeaster.

"We've got to hurry!" Addison said, glancing round.

We both struck into a trot and, with our eyes fastened to the trail, ran
on for about two miles until we came to a brook down in a gorge. By the
time we had crossed that the storm was upon us and the forest had taken
on the bewildering misty, gray look that even the most experienced
woodsman has reason to dread.

The snow that had fallen had obscured the faint sled tracks, and
Addison, who was ahead, pulled up. "We can't do it," he said. "We shan't
get through."

My first impulse was to run on, to run faster; that is always your first
instinct in such cases. Then I remembered the old Squire's advice to us
what to do if we should ever happen to be caught by a snowstorm in the
great woods:

"Don't go on a moment after you feel bewildered. Don't start to run, and
don't get excited. Stop right where you are and camp. If you run, you
will begin to circle, get crazy and perish before morning."

Addison cast another uneasy glance into the dim forest ahead. "Better
camp, I guess," he said. Turning, we hurried back into the hollow.

A few yards back from the brook were two rocks, about six feet apart and
nearly as high as my head. Hard snow lay between them; but we broke it
into pieces by stamping on it, and succeeded in clearing most of it
away, so that we bared the leaves and twigs that covered the ground.
Then, while I hacked off dry branches from a fallen fir-tree, Addison
gathered a few curled rolls of bark from several birches near by and
kindled a fire between the rocks.

We kept the fire going for more than an hour, until all the remaining
snow was thawed and the frost and wet thoroughly dried out, and until
the rocks had become so hot that we could hardly touch them. Then, after
hauling away the brands and embers, we brushed the place clean with
green boughs, and thus made for ourselves a warm, dry spot between the
rocks.

With poles and green boughs, we made for our shelter a roof that was
tight enough to keep out the snow. Except that we made a little mat of
bark and dry fir brush, to lie on, and that Addison brought an armful of
curled bark from the birches and a quantity of dry sticks to burn now
and then, t