r our smoke we lay down, and I slept heavily; it was
practically the first sleep I had had in three days. Some time in the
night George awoke me to make me eat a little of a concoction of the
mouldy flour and water, cooked thick and a trifle burned after the
style of nekapooshet, an Indian dish of which George was very fond. At
the first signs of dawn he again roused me, saying:

"It's time to be up, Wallace. We're goin' to have more snow to travel
in."

He was right. The clouds were hanging low and heavy, and the first
scattering flakes were falling of a storm that was to last for ten
days. I was able to open my eyes in the morning, but everything still
looked hazy. We boiled some of the wretched mouldy flour for
breakfast, and then divided what remained, George taking the larger
share, as he had the most work to do. Looking critically at my share,
he asked:

"How long can you keep alive on that?"

"It will take me two days to reach Hubbard," I replied, "and the two of
us might live three days more on it--on a pinch."

"Do you think you can live as long as that?" said George, looking me
hard in the eye.

"I'll try," I said.

"Then in five days I'll have help to you, if there's help to be had at
Grand Lake. Day after to-morrow I'll be at Grand Lake. Those fellus'll
be strong and can reach camp in two days, so expect 'em."

It was time for us to separate.

"George," I asked, "have you your Testament with you?"

"It's the Book of Common Prayer," he said, drawing it from his pocket;
"but it's got the Psalms in it."

He handed me the tiny leather-covered book, but I could not see the
print; the haze before my eyes was too thick. I returned the book to
him, and asked him to read one of the Psalms. Quite at haphazard, I am
sure, he turned to the ninety-first, and this is what he read:

"Whoso dwelleth under the defence of the Most High; shall abide under
the shadow of the Almighty.

"I will say unto the Lord, Thou art my hope, and my stronghold: my God,
in him will I trust.

"For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter: and from the
noisome pestilence.

"He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his
feathers: his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

"Thou shalt not be afraid for any terror by night: nor for the arrow
that flieth by day;

"For the pestilence that walketh in darkness: nor for the sickness that
destroyeth in the noon-day.