log shack, cure the meat, make toboggans and snowshoes,
wait for things to freeze up, and then push on to the post over the
snow and ice. We can get some dogs at the post, and we'll be in good
shape to push right on without delay to the St. Lawrence. It'll make a
bully trip, and we'll have lots of grub. What would we need to get at
the post, George?"

"Well," said George, "we'd need plenty of flour, pork, lard, beans,
sugar, tea, and bakin' powder; and we might take some condensed milk,
raisins, currants, rice, and molasses, and I'd make somethin' good
sometimes."

"That's a good idea," said Hubbard, whose mouth was evidently watering
even as mine was. "And we might take some butter, too. And how would
oatmeal go for porridge?--don't you think that would be bully on a cold
morning?"

"Yes," assented George; "we could eat molasses on it, or thin up the
condensed milk."

"We shall probably have caribou meat that we can take along frozen,"
Hubbard went on. "Frozen caribou meat is bully; it's better than when
it's fresh killed. Did you ever eat any, Wallace?"

"No," said I; "the only caribou meat I've ever eaten was what we've had
here."

"Then," said Hubbard, "there's a rare treat in store for you. The
first I ever ate was on my Lake St. John trip. The Indian I had with
me used to chop off pieces of frozen caribou with an axe, and fry it
with lard, and we'd just drink down the grease. It was fine."

"It's great," said George.

"Well," said Hubbard, coming back to the present, "I'm dead glad we've
decided to strike for the post. If this wind will ever let up, we must
get at it and catch some fish. I lay awake most of last night thinking
it all over and planning it all."

"I was awake most of the time, too," said George; "my feet were mighty
cold."

There was no fishing on the day we decided to turn back, as the wind
confined us to camp, and all we had to eat was rice and bacon soup; but
our anticipations of home to some extent overcame the clamour of our
stomachs, and we passed the time chatting about the things we intended
to do when we regained "God's country."

"I'm going to take a vacation," said Hubbard. "I'll visit father and
mother, if they're in the east, and sister Daisy, and maybe go to
Canada with my wife and stay a little while with her people. What will
you do, boys?"

I told of my plans to visit various relatives, and then George
described a trip he was going to make to visit a sis