out them."

Dick was right. The cold, dry air of the mountains cured them
admirably. Two or three times they thought to help along the
process by rubbing salt upon the inner sides. They could always
get plenty of salt by boiling out water from the salt springs,
but as they seemed to do as well without it, they ceased to take
the trouble.

The boys were so absorbed now in their interesting and profitable
tasks that they lost all count of the days. They knew they were
far advanced into a splendid open winter, but it is probably that
they could not have guessed within a week of the exact day.
However, that was a question of which they thought little.
Albert's health and strength continued to improve, and with the
mental stimulus added to the physical, the tide of life was
flowing very high for both.

They now undertook a new work in order to facilitate their
trapping operations. The beaver stream, and another that they
found a little later, ran far back into the mountains, and the
best trapping place was about ten miles away. After a day's work
around the beaver pond, they had to choose between a long journey
in the night to the cabin or sleeping in the open, the latter not
a pleasant thing since the nights had become so cold. Hence,
they began the erection of a bark shanty in a well-sheltered cove
near the most important of the beaver localities. This was a
work of much labor, but, as in all other cases, they persisted
until the result was achieved triumphantly.

They drove two stout, forked poles deep into the ground, leaving
a projection of about eight feet above the earth. The poles
themselves were about eight feet apart. From fork to fork they
placed a strong ridgepole. Then they rested against the
ridgepole from either side other and smaller poles at an angle of
forty or fifty degrees. The sloping poles were about a foot and
a half apart. These poles were like the scantling or inside
framework of a wooden house and they covered it all with spruce
and birch bark, beginning at the bottom and allowing each piece
to overlap the one beneath it, after the fashion of a shingled
roof. They secured pieces partly with wooden pegs and partly
with other and heavier wooden poles leaned against them. One end
of the shelter was closed up with bark wholly, secured with
wooden pegs, and the other end was left open in order that its
tenants might face the fire which would be built three or four
feet in front of