ore or less. Times
are when you can see as far as a hundred feet. And say! it's a
wonderful sight let me tell you."

Noon came and they sat down to the lunch that had been prepared for
them, this time by Frank and Spider, Bobolink having begged off. The
sun was shining in a dazzling way upon the white-coated ground. It
looked like fairyland the boys declared, though but little of the snow
had remained on the oaks, beeches and other forest trees, owing to the
furious and persistent wind.

The hemlocks, however, were bending low with the weight that pressed
upon their branches. Some of the smaller ones looked like snow
pyramids, and it was plain to be seen that during the remainder of the
winter most of this snow was bound to hang on.

"If we only had a few pairs of snow-shoes like Tolly Tip's here,"
suggested Bobolink, enthusiastically, "we might skim along over
ten-foot drifts, and never bother about things."

"Yes," Jud told him, a bit sarcastically, "if we knew just how to
manage the bally things, we might. But it isn't so easy as you think.
Most of us would soon be taking headers, and finding ourselves upside
down. It's a trick that has to be learned; and some fellows never can
get the hang, I've been told."

"Well, there's no need of our talking about it," interposed Paul,
"because there's only one pair of snow-shoes in the cabin, and all of
us can't wear those. But Tolly Tip says we're apt to find avenues
swept in the snow by the wind, where we can walk for the most part on
clear ground, with but few drifts to wade through."

"It may make a longer journey av the same," the old woodsman
explained; "but if luck favors us we'll git there in due time, I
belave, if so be ye settle on goin'."

Nothing could hold the scouts back, it seemed. This idea of setting
forth to succor an enemy in distress had taken a firm hold upon their
imaginations.

Besides, those days when they were shut up in the storm-besieged cabin
had been fearfully long to their active spirits, and on this account,
too, they welcomed the chance to do something.

There could no longer be any doubt that the storm had blown itself
out, for the sky was rapidly clearing. The air remained bitter cold,
and Paul advised those whom he selected to accompany him to wrap
themselves up with additional care, for he did not wish to have them
take the chance of frosting their toes and their noses.

Those who were fortunate enough to be drafted for the trip