y, with the travois followed.
How good it was to be away! How glorious the ice and the starlit
morning!

The surface of the bay, smooth and firm, proved much more solidly frozen
than Toby had expected to find it, and in a little while, when they had
passed the center of ice lying between the island and the mainland, he
discarded his staff as an unnecessary burden.

"She don't bend anywhere," he said delightedly. "We'll not be needin' to
try she now. Past the middle 'tis sure to be tough and thick. We'll be
headin' now for shore, and be keepin' clost inshore where there'll sure
be no bad ice whatever."

"Isn't it glorious!" Charley exploded in exuberance. "I feel like
dancing a jig! Whoopla! Toby, let's yell!"

And together the boys gave a yell that made the forest on the near-by
shore echo.

"Oh, but it's great!" exclaimed Charley a little later. "I'm glad
there's no snow on the ice. This rig I'm harnessed in wouldn't drag half
so easily if there was snow. I don't mind it a little bit. I hardly feel
the difference, it slides so well. How long will it take us?"

"With the early start, we'll be getting there a bit after dinner, and we
may make un by dinner. We were startin' two hours before daylight,
whatever."

The travois continued to prove no appreciable burden to Charley, as Toby
had feared it would. The clear frosty air was an inspiration to fast
walking, and indeed it was necessary for the boys to walk fast in order
that they might keep the blood in circulation and comfortably warm. His
experience on the trail with Skipper Zeb had toughened Charley's
muscles, and improved his powers of endurance greatly, and he had no
difficulty in keeping the quite rapid pace that Toby made.

They had been a full two hours on the trail when daylight came, and
presently the sun peeped over the eastern horizon. In the flood of
glorious sunshine that suddenly bathed the world, every shrub and bush
that lined the shore, thickly coated with hoarfrost and rime, sparkled
and glinted as though encrusted with burnished silver set with countless
diamonds.

"How wonderful!" exclaimed Charley. "Isn't it great, Toby! I never saw
anything like it!"

"Aye, 'tis wonderful fine," said Toby.

Even in the full rays of sunshine the snow along shore did not soften,
and the ice kept dry. Charley declared that it was no warmer at midday
than it had been in the early morning.

It was nearly one o'clock when they rounded the point above Dou