d themselves, and been content to enjoy in reason the benefits of
the great Giver."

"There is much that is true in what you say, and I've got a piece in
this very Tribune which bears on that point. I'll read it to you. Hang
me if ever I saw the like! Where's Davies' ice-house? Is there a fog
coming up, or am I dizzy?"

"O, that's nothing," said La Salle, laughing. "You're only going
blind--snow-blind, I mean. You know that Kane tells about his people
using goggles to prevent snow-blindness; and you left yours off
yesterday and to-day."

"Well, it's a curious thing. I can barely see you now; and I know I
could not find my way home to save my life. But what shall I do? Will it
last long?"

"If I had but a handkerchief full of clay, I could cure it in half an
hour; but lie down in the straw, and get your head under the half-deck,
where you can see neither sun nor snow, and I think you will rest
yourself enough to see pretty well by the time we want to go home."

But Kennedy was fated to lie in impatient helplessness during the
remainder of the afternoon. Several fine flocks came in to the decoys;
and La Salle, using the double-barrel first, and firing the huge
duck-gun at long range, killed three, and sometimes four, out of each
flock, while Kennedy groaned in anguish of spirit. At last he could bear
it no longer.

"Keep close, Kennedy; there's another flock coming, and the finest I've
seen this year. There's twenty at the least, and they're coming right
in."

"Give me my gun, Charley. I can't see much, but I can a little, and I
can fire where I hear them call. This is my last day; for Patrick is
coming out to-night with the boys, and I go in with them. Where are the
birds now?"

"Right dead to leeward. Ah-h-huk! ah-h-huk! Here they come, low down,
and ready to light. Ah-h-huk! ah-h-huk! Now, Kennedy, can you see them?"

"Yes; that is, I see something like flies in a black gauze net. Are
those geese?"

"Yes, and close to us; so up and fire."

Bang! bang! crashed the heavy double-barrel, with both reports nearly
blended in one, and Kennedy was driven back by the recoil against the
rear top board of the boat. Nearly bursting with laughter, La Salle
"lined" the flock as they swung off, killing and wounding three.

"Are you hurt, Kennedy?" he inquired, jumping out of the boat to catch
the wounded birds.

"Dot buch, but by dose bleeds a little, a'd I've cut by lip. How baddy
have I killed, Charley? for I cad