rge as could be conveniently made was kindled, and the brother
and sister wrapped themselves in their blankets and lay comfortably down
beside it to spend the night there.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"SHOOSKIN'."

Next day Roy and Nelly rose with the sun, and spent the forenoon in
skinning and cutting up the bear, for they intended to dry part of the
meat, and use it on their journey. The afternoon was spent in dragging
the various parts to the hut. In the evening Roy proposed that they
should go and have a shoosk. Nelly agreed, so they sallied forth to a
neighbouring slope with their sledge.

Shoosking, good reader, is a game which is played not only by children
but by men and women; it is also played in various parts of the world,
such as Canada and Russia, and goes by various names; but we shall adopt
the name used by _our_ hero and heroine, namely "shoosking." It is very
simple, but uncommonly violent, and consists in hauling a sledge to the
top of a snow-hill or slope, getting upon it, and sliding down to the
bottom. Of course, the extent of violence depends on the steepness of
the slope, the interruptions that occur in it, and the nature of the
ground at the bottom. We once shoosked with an Indian down a
wood-cutter's track, on the side of a steep hill, which had a sharp turn
in it, with a pile of firewood at the turn, and a hole in the snow at
the bottom, in which were a number of old empty casks. Our great
difficulties in this place were to take the turn without grazing the
firewood, and to stop our sledges before reaching the hole. We each had
separate sledges. For some time we got on famously, but at last _we_
ran into the pile of firewood, and tore all the buttons off our coat,
and the Indian went down into the hole with a hideous crash among the
empty casks; yet, strange to say, neither of us came by any serious
damage!

"There's a splendid slope," said Roy, as they walked briskly along the
shores of Silver Lake, dragging the sledge after them, "just beyond the
big cliff, but I'm afraid it's too much for _you_."

"Oh, _I_ can go if you can," said Nell, promptly.

"You've a good opinion of yourself. I guess I could make you sing small
if I were to try."

"Then don't try," said Nelly, with a laugh.

"See," continued Roy, "there's the slope; you see it is very steep; we'd
go down it like a streak of greased lightnin'; but I don't like to try
it."

"Why not? It seems easy enough to me. I'm s