enveloped in skins. This man
sat leaning against a transom. His eyes were open, and glared on the party
around the camboose; the lips were slightly parted, and, at first, Roswell
expected to hear him speak. The immovable features, rigid muscles, and
wild expression of the eyeballs, however, soon told him the melancholy
truth. The man was dead. The current of life had actually frozen at his
heart. Shuddering, as much with horror as with a sharp chill that just
then passed through his own stout frame, our young master turned anxiously
to note the success of Stimson, in getting the wood of the camboose in a
blaze.

Every one, in the least accustomed to a very severe climate, must have had
frequent occasions to observe the reluctance with which all sorts of fuel
burn, in exceedingly cold weather. The billet of wood that shall blaze
merrily, on a mild day, moulders and simmers, and seems indisposed to give
out any heat at all, with the thermometer at zero. In a word, all
inanimate substances that contain the elements of caloric appear to
sympathize with the prevailing state of the atmosphere, and to contribute
to render that which is already too cold for comfort, even colder. So it
was now; notwithstanding the preparations that had been made. Baffled
twice in his expectations of procuring a blaze, Stephen stopped and took a
drink of the hot coffee. As he swallowed the beverage, it struck him that
it was fast losing its warmth.

A considerable collection of canvass, saturated with oil, was now put
beneath the pile, in the midst of splinters of pine, and one of the lamps
was forced into the centre of the combustibles. This expedient succeeded;
the frosts were slowly chased out of the kindling materials; a sickly but
gradually increasing flame strove through the kindling stuff and soon
began to play among the billets of the oak, the only fuel that could be
relied on for available heat. Still there was great danger that the
lighter wood would all be consumed ere this main dependence could be
aroused from its dull inactivity. Frost appeared to be in possession of
the whole pile; and it was expelled so slowly, clung to its dominion with
so much power, as really to render the result doubtful, for a moment or
two. Fortunately, there was found a pair of bellows; and by means of a
judicious use of this very useful implement, the oak wood was got into a
bright blaze, and warmth began to be given out from the fire. Then came
the shive