in
that valley."

"I know they was there well enough," said Sneak; "but didn't I say
they couldn't find the house, even if they was to scratch their backs
agin it?"

"What kind of a house is it?"

"'Spose you come along and see," said Sneak, groping about in the dim
twilight for his cap, and the gun Glenn bad given him.

"I should like to see it, just out of curiosity," replied Joe.

[Illustration: "I will pray for his recovery," said Mary, bowing down
at the foot of the bed.--P. 186]

"Then go along with Sneak," said Glenn, who approached the fire to
prepare some medicine; "it is necessary that every thing should be
quiet and still here."

"If you'll help me to feed and water the horses. Sneak, I'll go home
with you," said Joe. Sneak readily agreed to the proposition, and by
the time it was quite light, and yet before the sun rose, the labour
was accomplished, and they set out together for the designated valley.
Their course was somewhat different from that pursued when in quest of
the wolves, for Sneak's habitation was about midway between the river
and the prairie, and they diverged in a westerly direction. But their
progress was slow During the night there had been a change in the
atmosphere, and a constant breeze from the south had in a great
measure softened the snow-crust, so that our pedestrians frequently
broke through.

"This is not the most agreeable walking I ever saw," said Joe,
breaking through and tumbling down on his face.

"That's jest as much like swimming as walking," said Sneak, smiling at
the blunder of his companion.

"Smash it, Sneak," continued Joe, rising up with some difficulty, "I
don't half like this breaking-through business."

"You must walk lighter, and then you won't break through," said Sneak;
"tread soft like I do, and put your feet down flat. I hain't broke in
once--" But before the sentence was uttered, Sneak had broken through
himself, and stood half-submerged in the snow.

"Ha! ha! ha! you musn't count your chickens before they're hatched,"
said Joe, laughing; "but you may score one, now you have broken the
shell."

"I got in that time," said Sneak, now winding through the bushes with
much caution, as if it were truly in his power to diminish the weight
of his body by a peculiar mode of walking.

"This thaw 'll be good for one thing, any how," said Joe, after they
had progressed some time in silence.

"What's that?" asked Sneak.

"Why, it 'll keep the Indians