f he ever
attempted to run he would crack all over, and go to pieces like a
disentombed Egyptian mummy. Tom therefore walked off to the row of
buildings inhabited by the men, where he sat down on a bench in front of
his bed, and proceeded leisurely to fill his pipe.

The room in which he sat was a fair specimen of the dwellings devoted to
the _employes_ of the Hudson's Bay Company throughout the country. It
was large, and low in the roof, built entirely of wood, which was
unpainted; a matter, however, of no consequence, as, from long exposure
to dust and tobacco-smoke, the floor, walls, and ceiling had become one
deep, uniform brown. The men's berths were constructed after the
fashion of berths on board ship, being wooden boxes ranged in tiers
round the room. Several tables and benches were strewn miscellaneously
about the floor, in the centre of which stood a large double iron stove,
with the word "_Carron_" stamped on it. This served at once for
cooking, and warming the place. Numerous guns, axes, and canoe-paddles
hung round the walls or were piled in corners, and the rafters sustained
a miscellaneous mass of materials, the more conspicuous among which were
snow-shoes, dog-sledges, axe handles, and nets.

Having filled and lighted his pipe, Tom Whyte thrust his hands into his
deerskin mittens, and sauntered off to perform his errand.

CHAPTER FOUR.

A WOLF-HUNT IN THE PRAIRIES--CHARLEY ASTONISHES HIS FATHER, AND BREAKS
IN THE "NOO 'OSS" EFFECTUALLY.

During the long winter that reigns in the northern regions of America,
the thermometer ranges, for many months together, from zero down to 20,
30, and 40 degrees _below_ it. In different parts of the country the
intensity of the frost varies a little, but not sufficiently to make any
appreciable change in one's sensation of cold. At York Fort, on the
shores of Hudson's Bay, where the winter is eight months long, the
spirit-of-wine (mercury being useless in so cold a climate) sometimes
falls so low as 50 degrees below zero; and away in the regions of Great
Bear Lake it has been known to fall considerably lower than 60 degrees
below zero of Fahrenheit. Cold of such intensity, of course, produces
many curious and interesting effects, which, although scarcely noticed
by the inhabitants, make a strong impression upon the minds of those who
visit the country for the first time. A youth goes out to walk on one
of the first sharp, frosty mornings. His locks a