had on a fur
coat. It wasn't as big as the one I wore here," he said, "but I was very
glad to have it, and I buttoned it around me as tight as I could and
walked on in the darkness and through the snowstorm, trying to find my
way back.

"But I couldn't. I seemed to be getting more lost all the while, and
finally I made up my mind there was no help for it. I'd have to stay out
in the woods, on top of the mountain all night."

"All alone?" asked Jan.

"All alone," answered Uncle Frank. "But I wasn't afraid, for I had my
gun with me, and I'd been out all night alone before that. But I didn't
like the cold. I was afraid I might freeze or get snowed in, and then I
never could find my way back.

"So, before it got too dark, and before the snow came down too heavily,
I stopped, made a little fire and warmed some coffee I had in a tin
bottle. I drank that, ate a little cold bread and meat I had, and then I
felt better.

"But I wanted some place where I could stay all night. There were no
houses where I could go in and get a nice, warm bed. There were no
hotels and there wasn't even a log cabin or a shack. I couldn't build a
snow house, for the snow was cold and dry and wouldn't pack, so the next
best thing to do, I thought, would be for me to find a hollow log and
crawl into that.

"So I looked around as well as I could in the storm and darkness," went
on Uncle Frank, "and finally I found a log that would just about suit
me. I cleared away the snow from one end, kicking it with my boots, and
then, when I had buttoned my fur coat around me, I crawled into the log
with my gun.

"It was dark inside the hollow log, and not very nice, but it was warm,
and I was out of the cold wind and the snow. Of course it was very dark,
but as I didn't have anything to read, I didn't need a light.

"After a while I began to feel sleepy, and before I knew it I was dozing
off. Just before I began to dream about being in a nice warm house, with
some roast turkey and cranberry sauce for supper, I felt some one else
getting inside the hollow log with me.

"I was too sleepy to ask who it was. I thought it was somebody like
myself, lost in the storm, who had crawled in as I had done to keep from
freezing. So I just said: 'Come on, there's lots of room for two of us,'
and then I went fast asleep. I thought I'd let the other man sleep, too.

"Well, I stayed in the log all night and then I woke up. I thought it
must be morning, but I couldn't