tfit on the small sled, and with snow-shoes on his feet left
the place. He had advanced some distance when suddenly he remembered
the dog. He stopped and gave a sharp whistle. Then he called, but the
animal did not appear.

"Strange!" he thought. "What has happened to the brute? I must not
leave him here."

Retracing his steps, he searched the cabin. Not finding him, he went
to the grave, and there, lying on the snowy mound, he found the poor
brute. His grief was plainly evident, and, as he lifted his head in
response to Keith's call, sorrow, almost human, was depicted on his
face. Only after much coaxing was he induced to leave the spot,
abandon his old master, and cast in his lot with the new.

Together, at length, they set out upon the long trail; the man drawing
the sled, the dog walking dejectedly behind. It was a dreary march
over that desolate waste, as on and on they moved, two creeping specks.
Nowhere, except it be upon the heaving ocean, does one feel more deeply
his own insignificance than when alone in the great white North in
midwinter. No human voice to break the awful silence; no song of bird
or buzz of insect to fall upon the ear; thousands of miles from home,
in a roadless wilderness.

As the second day was drawing to a close, Keith's weary steps
quickened. He leaned eagerly forward, his strong, gaunt face filled
with expectancy. Creak! Creak! How loudly the snow-shoes sounded at
each swinging stride. The noise disturbed him. He stopped and
listened intently. Then a look of disappointment passed over his
countenance. His gaze swept the sky. The Northern Lights were
streaming across the heavens like huge pennons flung out into a strong
breeze. The unseen spirits of the North seemed to be marching and
countermarching in vast battalions through the Arctic night. Their
banners rose, faded, vanished; to reappear, writhing, twisting,
curling, flashing forth in matchless beauty all the colours of the
rainbow. Yellow and green, green and yellow, ruby-red and
greenish-white, chasing one another, vieing with one another as the
great, silent army incessantly retreated and advanced.

Such scenes seldom failed to arouse in Keith the feeling of wonder and
awe, but on this night he hardly noticed the grand display. He was
watching the friendly stars as they tumbled out one by one. For long
years they had been his steady companions on many a toilsome journey,
and he read them like an open