generally big enough to let a snowshoe go
through. We'll pull you out if you do. Come along."

Off they went again. But they had not gone far before discovering that
travel was going to be less easy than they had thought. The snow was
light and the snowshoes sank deep. They moved in a cloud of puffing
white powder, and the heavy toboggan went down so that it was difficult
to draw it. Without the smooth, level road of the river they could
hardly have progressed at all.

They braced themselves to the work and plodded on, taking turns at
going first to break the road. The sun shone down in a white dazzle.
There was no heat in it, but the glare was so strong that they had to
pull their caps low over their eyes for fear of snow-blindness--the
most deadly enemy of the winter traveler in the North. During the
forenoon they thought they made hardly more than ten miles, and at noon
they halted, made a fire and boiled tea.

The hot drink and an hour's rest made them ready for the road again.
Twice that afternoon they had to make a long detour through the woods
to avoid unfrozen rapids, and once the brush was so dense that they had
to cut a way for the toboggan with the axe. Once, too, the ice
suddenly cracked under Fred's foot, and he flung himself forward just
in time to avoid the black water gushing up through the snowed-over
air-hole.

The life of the wilderness was beginning to emerge after the storm.
Along the shores they saw the tracks of mink. Once they encountered a
plunging trail across the river where several timber wolves must have
crossed the night before, and late in the afternoon Maurice shot a
couple of spruce grouse in a thicket. He flung them on the toboggan,
and they arrived at camp that night frozen into solid lumps.

It was plainly impossible to reach the cabin that day. Peter, who was
keenly on the lookout, failed to recognize any of the landmarks.

"We'd better camp early, boys," he said. "We can't make it to-day, and
there's no use in getting snowshoe cramp and being tied up for a week."

They kept on, however, till the sun was almost down. A faint but
piercing northwest breeze had arisen, and they halted in the lee of a
dense cedar thicket close to the river. A huge log had fallen down the
shore, and this would make an excellent backing for the fire during the
night.

Drawing up the toboggan, the boys took off their snowshoes and began to
shovel out a circular pit for the camp. Th