f it drop off. Ha, ha!"

He laughed out loudly, apparently enjoying his ponderous joke greatly,
but she felt that she must heed his advice and frequently carried the
big mitt Mrs. Olsen had lent her to her face. They came to a great
expanse of deep forest where, in places, the ground was nearly bare of
snow. The pulling was hard here and the dogs toiled along more slowly
and panted as their cloudy breaths rose in steamy puffs. Madge admired
them. They seemed such strong, willing animals. When they rested for a
moment they would lie down and bite off the little balls of ice that
formed beneath their toes, but at a word they would leap up again and
throw themselves against their breast-bands, eagerly. In one difficult
place Madge protested.

"The poor things are working so hard," she said. "Couldn't I get out
and walk for a while? I don't feel tired at all now, but your poor
dogs do, I'm sure."

"No, ma'am," replied Stefan. "They ain't tired. They yoost look so
because they work hard. In dis country togs and men has to work hard
or go hoongry. In a moment you sees how dey run again, vhen dey get
good going. Dem togs can go dis vay all day and be fresh again
to-morrow. Eferybody here knows vhat my team o' togs can do, ma'am."

It was evident that he was proud of them, and Madge decided that it
was with good reason. They had started again and reached an expanse of
burnt land, upon which the snow was crusted and the road was on a down
grade. The team that had panted so hard, with lolling tongues, threw
itself into the collars and trotted off again, briskly, while Stefan
followed with the short-stepped and effortless flat-footed run that
covers so much ground in the north. The girl had to balance herself
rather carefully at times, for the surface was by no means a level
one. The toboggan swayed and bumped over hidden things that may have
been stumps or rocks, or great buried ruts of the previous fall.

It was all so new and wonderful! A sense of enjoyment actually stole
over her. But for the feeling of stiffness in her face she felt
comfortably warm. Without ever meeting a soul, through a country that
seemed utterly deserted of man, they went on for several miles. Once
Stefan stopped the toboggan in order to show her tracks of a bear. It
was wonderful to think that such animals roamed about her. The Swede
told her that they were utterly harmless, that they always fled as
soon as their keen eyes or sharp ears revealed the