re rapidly. It is true that their road was a good deal broken,
and jagged pieces of ice protruded their sharp corners so as to render a
little attention necessary in walking; but one or two severe bumps on
their toes made our friends sensitively alive to these minor dangers of
the way.

"There goes a pack of them!" exclaimed Harry, as a troop of white foxes
scampered past, gambolling as they went, and coming suddenly to a halt
at a short distance, wheeled about and sat down on their haunches,
apparently resolved to have a good look at the strangers who dared to
venture into their wild domain.

"Oh, they are the most stupid brutes alive," said the accountant, as he
regarded the pack with a look of contempt. "I've seen one of them sit
down and look at me while I set a trap right before his eyes; and I had
not got a hundred yards from the spot when a yell informed me that the
gentleman's curiosity had led him to put his foot right into it."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Harry. "I had no idea that they were so tame.
Certainly no other kind of fox would do that."

"No, that's certain. But these fellows have done it to me again and
again. I shouldn't wonder if we got one to-night in the very same way.
I'm sure, by the look of these rascals, that they would do anything of a
reckless, stupid nature just now."

"Had we not better make our trap here, then? There is a point, not
fifty yards off, with trees on it large enough for our purpose."

"Yes; it will do very well here. Now, then, to work. Go to the wood,
Harry, and fetch a log or two, while I cut out the slabs." So saying,
the accountant drew the axe which he always carried in his belt; and
while Harry entered the wood and began to hew off the branch of a tree,
he proceeded, as he had said, to "cut out the slabs." With the point of
his knife he first of all marked out an oblong in the snow, then cut
down three or four inches with the axe, and putting the handle under the
cut, after the manner of a lever, detached a thick, solid slab of about
three inches thick, which, although not so hard as ice, was quite hard
enough for the purpose for which it was intended. He then cut two
similar slabs and a smaller one, the same in thickness and breadth, but
only half the length. Having accomplished this, he raised himself to
rest a little, and observed that Harry approached, staggering under a
load of wood, and that the foxes were still sitting on their haunches,
gazing at hi