busy season
for Koot.

Towards March, the sun-glare has produced a crust on the snow that is
almost like glass. For Koot on his snow-shoes this had no danger; but
for the mongrel that was to draw the pelts back to the fort, the snow
crust was more troublesome than glass. Where the crust was thick, with
Koot leading the way snow-shoes and dog and toboggan glided over the
drifts as if on steel runners. But in midday the crust was soft and the
dog went floundering through as if on thin ice, the sharp edge cutting
his feet. Koot tied little buckskin sacks round the dog's feet and made
a few more rounds of the swamp; but the crust was a sign that warned
him it was time to prepare for the marten-hunt. To leave his furs at the
fort, he must cross the prairie while it was yet good travelling for the
dog. Dismantling the little cabin, Koot packed the pelts on the
toboggan, roped all tightly so there could be no spill from an upset,
and putting the mongrel in the traces, led the way for the fort one
night when the snow-crust was hard as ice.

* * * * *

The moon came up over the white fields in a great silver disk. Between
the running man and the silver moon moved black skulking forms--the
foragers on their night hunt. Sometimes a fox loped over a drift, or a
coyote rose ghostly from the snow, or timber-wolves dashed from wooded
ravines and stopped to look till Koot fired a shot that sent them
galloping.

In the dark that precedes daylight, Koot camped beside a grove of
poplars--that is, he fed the dog a fish, whittled chips to make a fire
and boil some tea for himself, then digging a hole in the drift with his
snow-shoe, laid the sleigh to windward and cuddled down between
bear-skins with the dog across his feet.

Daylight came in a blinding glare of sunshine and white snow. The way
was untrodden. Koot led at an ambling run, followed by the dog at a fast
trot, so that the trees were presently left far on the offing and the
runners were out on the bare white prairie with never a mark, tree or
shrub, to break the dazzling reaches of sunshine and snow from horizon
to horizon. A man who is breaking the way must keep his eyes on the
ground; and the ground was so blindingly bright that Koot began to see
purple and yellow and red patches dancing wherever he looked on the
snow. He drew his capote over his face to shade his eyes; but the pace
and the sun grew so hot that he was soon running again unp