ss him and feed him?"

"--and if you don't hurry up, he saves you the trouble of unharnessing
by eating the traces and things."

"Humph! So would you if that village weren't in sight, if you were sure
the harness wouldn't stick in your gizzard. And think of what a dog
gets to reward him for his plucky day: one dried salmon or a little
meal-soup when he's off on a holiday like this. Works without a let-up,
and keeps in good flesh on one fish a day. Doesn't even get anything to
drink; eats a little snow after dinner, digs his bed, and sleeps in a
drift till morning."

"When he doesn't howl all night."

"Oh, that's when he meets his friends, and they talk about old times
before they came down in the world."

"Hey?"

"Yes; when they were wolves and made us run instead of our making them.
Make any fellow howl. Instead of carrying our food about we used to
carry theirs, and run hard to keep from giving it up, too."

"Nig's at it again," said the Colonel. "Give us your whip."

"No," said the Boy; "I begin to see now why he stops and goes for Red
like that. Hah! Spot's gettin it, too, this time. They haven't been
pullin' properly. You just notice: if they aren't doin' their share
Nig'll turn to every time and give 'em 'Hail, Columbia!' You'll see,
when he's freshened 'em up a bit we'll have 'em on a dead run." The Boy
laughed and cracked his whip.

"They've got keen noses. _I_ don't smell the village this time. Come
on, Nig, Spot's had enough; he's sorry, good and plenty. Cheer up,
Spot! Fish, old man! You hear me talkin' to you, Red? _Fish!_ Caches
full of it. Whoop!" and down they rushed, pell-mell, men and dogs
tearing along like mad across the frozen river, and never slowing till
it came to the stiff pull up the opposite bank.

"Funny I don't hear any dogs," panted the Boy.

They came out upon a place silent as the dead--a big deserted village,
emptied by the plague, or, maybe, only by the winter; caches emptied,
too; not a salmon, not a pike, not a lusk, not even a whitefish left
behind.

It was a bitter blow. They didn't say anything; it was too bad to talk
about. The Colonel made the fire, and fried a little bacon and made
some mush: that was their dinner. The bacon-rinds were boiled in the
mush-pot with a great deal of snow and a little meal, and the "soup" so
concocted was set out to cool for the dogs. They were afraid to sleep
in one of the cabins; it might be plague-infected. The Indians had cut
all t