"'Allbloodylay the untrodden snow,'"as Kate exclaimed, misquoting her "Hohenlinden" to suit the red glow of the rich evening light."Hurrah for supper!" screamed Jim; and with an extra spurt they swung the boat up to the bank.A little sweeping with a broom made of an alder branch cleared the cabin of the snow that had blown into the cracks and fallen down the mud-and-stone chimney. This done, Aleck called to them to listen to his first orders, which he had written down in a note-book, and now read as follows:Captain's Order No. 1.—Any order given by the Captain must be obeyed by the person to whom it is addressed, unless his reason for not doing so will not keep till camping-time; merelynot likingthe duty is no excuse.Captain's Order No. 2.—The Captain will say when and where camp shall be made, and immediately upon stopping to camp the duties of each person shall be taken upas follows: the Captain shall secure the boat, get out the tent, and proceed to set it up; Tug shall take the axe and get fuel for the fire; Kate shall see to the building of the fire and the preparation of food; Jim shall help Kate, particularly in carrying articles needed, and in getting water; and all, when these special duties are finished, shall report to the Captain for further duty.Captain's Order No. 3.—Any complaints or suggestions must be made in council, which will commence after camp work is completed and supper is over, and not before."There," said Aleck, "do you agree to that?""Yes—agreed!" shouted three voices in chorus."Then pitch in, all of you; you know your work."At this Tug seized the axe, Aleck and Jim went to the sledge, and Katy began to kindle a little blaze on the hearth with some bits of dry wood she found lying about, so that when Tug had brought an armful of sticks, a good fire was quickly crackling. Then the iron pot, full of water, was hung upon the old spike, where the blaze began curling around its three little black feet in a most loving way."Jimkin," called the girl to her brother, who was gazing with delight at the bright fire, "Jimkin, bring me all those paper packages at the stern of the boat, and be careful of the white one—it's eggs.""I guess there won't be much tent to set up to-night, Aleck," he remarked, as he found the Captain, who had hauled the sledge well up on the bank and tied it securely to a tree, now busy in dragging out the sail."No," was the reply, "but the canvas'll come handy. Tell Tug I say he'd better get a big heap of wood together, for we're going to have a cold night. The wind has turned to the north, and is rising."When he had taken the canvas up to the cabin, he called Jim to help him, and they brought in the mess chest, the rolls of bedding, and the piece of spare canvas which had covered the prow. Then, telling Jim to take the little sled that had been dragged behind the boat, and haul to the door the wood Tug had cut among the trees not far away, Aleck seized the shovel and began heaping snow against the northern side of the house, where there were many cracks between the lower logs. But his hard work to shut them up in this way seemed to be in vain, for the wind, which was blowing harder and harder every minute, whisked the snow away about as fast as he was able to pile it up. Kate, stepping out to see what he was about, came to his rescue with a happy thought."I read in Dr. Kane's book of arctic travels, that when they make houses of snow they throw water on them, which freezes, and holds them firm and tight. Couldn't you do that here? It's cold enough to freeze anything."Aleck thought he might, and bidding Kate go back to her fireside, he called the other boys to help him; then, while Jim stuffed the cracks with snow, Aleck and Tug alternately brought water from a hole cut in the river ice, and dashed it against the chinking. Some of the water splashed through, and a good deal was tossed back in their faces and benumbed their hands, so that it was hard, cold work; but before long a crust had formed over the snow-stuffed cracks, and Katy came to the door to say that she couldn't feel a draught anywhere. The roof was pretty good, and when, tired and hungry, but warm with their exercise (except as to their toes and fingers), the three lads went in and shut the door, they found their quarters very snug, and didn't mind how loud the gale howled among the trees outside. Rex, especially, seemed to enjoy it, curling down at the corner of the fireplace as though very much at home.Meanwhile Katy bustled about, setting out plates, knives, and forks on the top of the mess chest, which she had covered with the clean white paper in which her packages had been wrapped. She had put eight eggs to boil in the kettle, which were now done, and were carefully fished out, while the coffee-pot was bubbling on the coals, and letting fragrant jets of steam escape from under the loosely fitting cover. A cut loaf of bread lay on the table, and beside it a tumbler of currant jelly, "as sure as I am a Dutchman"—which was Tug's favorite way of putting a truth very strongly indeed, though he wasn't that kind of a man at all. The eagerness to taste this sweetmeat brought out the melancholy fact that by some accident there was only one spoon in the whole kit.SUPPER IN THE LOG CABIN."We'll fix that all right this evening," Aleck remarked. "I'll whittle wooden ones out of sycamore.""Shall I broil some mutton-chops, or will you save those for breakfast?""Broil 'em now," cried Jim."Hold your opinion, Youngster, till your elders are heard," was Tug's rejoinder. "I vote we save 'em.""So do I.""And I.""Done," says Captain Aleck. "Give us the chops for breakfast, Miss Housekeeper.""Then supper's all ready," she said, and took her seat on a stick of wood, pouring and passing the coffee, while the eggs and the bread and butter went round. By the time the meal was finished it had become dark, but this did not matter, since there was no need to go out of doors."How shall I wash the dishes?" asked Katy, with a comical grin, as she rose from the table. "I couldn't bring a big pan.""Well," suggested Aleck, "you can clean out your kettle,refill it with water—Jim, there's business for you!—and then wash them in that.""That's a matter never bothered me much whenIwas camping," added Tug, dryly. "I just scrubbed the plates with a wisp of grass, and cleaned the knives and forks by jabbing 'em into the ground a few times."While the dishes were washing Aleck opened the tent bundle, and laid the mast across two pegs that somebody had driven into the north wall of the room just under the ceiling beams, perhaps to hang fishing-poles on. Then, with Tug's aid, he tied to the mast the inner hem of the sail-cloth, which thus hung loosely against the wall, like a big curtain, shutting out every draught."That's splendid!" cried Katy, watching them from the end of the room where the fire was."So isthis!" came a voice from overhead, making them all look up in surprise.It was Jim, who, unnoticed by any one, had clambered into the loft, which had been floored over about two thirds of the room, and who was now thrusting his red face down through the open part."What do you think I've found?""Give it up. I knew of a man who died after asking conundrums all his life," answered Tug, gravely, "and I've fought shy of 'em since.""Tell us at once, Jimkin," called out Aleck."Straw!" shouted Jim."Pshaw!" was the next rejoinder heard."No rhymes, Katy," Aleck admonished. "Is it clean, Youngster?""Cleaner than he is, I should say, by his face," said Tug, and with some reason, for the loft was dusty."Don't know; you can see for yourself," and down came a great yellow armful.It was pounced upon, and, proving dry and fresh, the delighted Jim was ordered to send down all he could find, which was laid on the floor, not far from the fire, and covered with the spare canvas. This made a soft sort of mattress, upon which each one could spread his blankets, and sleep with great comfort, since there was plenty for all."Sha'n't have so good a bed as this another night," groaned Aleck."Can't tell—maybe better!" said the cheerful Tug.The warmest place was set apart for Katy, and Aleck made a small screen, covered with a newspaper curtain, which separated her from the other three, who were to sleep side by side. These preparations made, the fire was heaped high with fresh wood, and then the little quartet took their ease, lounging on the springy straw before it,and indulging in a quiet talk over the busy day just finished, or what they were likely to meet on the morrow.Aleck said something about being able to travel by compass in case they were caught in a snow-storm, which was what he dreaded the most, when Jim asked him to explain the compass to him, leaving Katy's side and going over to where his big brother was stretched out at the other corner of the fireplace. The girl, thus deserted, went to the valise in which she kept her small articles, and came back with a book.Chapter VI.NORSE TALES."What are you reading?" asked Tug, who was the last boy in the world to be interested in a book, unless it was one about animals, but who had nothing else to do just then."A book of old stories.""What about?—adventures, and things of that sort?""Partly. Some of them are fairy stories—about queer little people, and animals that talk, and heavenly beings that help lost children, and people that have hard times.""Why, those are the very fellows we want to see. Let's hear about 'em—mebbe we can give 'em a job.""Well, if you would like it, I'll read you this story I've just begun," said Katy, good-naturedly."Much obliged. I think that would be tip-top."So Katy read to him, as he lounged on the straw and gazed into the bright fire, an old myth-story of the North Wind. How, away in a far corner of Norway, there once lived a widow with one son. It was midwinter, and she was weak, so the lad was obliged to go to the "safe" (orcellar dug near the house, where the food was kept) to bring the materials for the morning meal. The first time he went, and the second, and again, at the third attempt, the fierce North Wind blew the food out of his hands. These three losses vexed the lad greatly, and he resolved to go to the North Wind and demand the food back. After long travelling he found the home of the giant, far towards the pole, and made his demand. The North Wind heard him, and gave him a cloth which would serve all the finest dishes in the world whenever the boy chose to spread it and call for them. On his way home he stopped at a tavern for the night, and, spreading his cloth, had a feast. The landlady was astonished, as well she might be, and thinking what a useful thing such a tablecloth would be in a hotel, she stole it while the lad was asleep, and put in its place one that looked like it, but which had no secret power.The lad, not suspecting the change, went home, and boasted gleefully to his mother of what he had brought. But when he tried it, of course the false cloth could do nothing, and the old lady both laughed at him and scolded him. Vexed again, the lad hastened back, and accused the North Wind of fraud. So the giant gave him a ram which would coin golden ducats when commanded. Stopping at the tavern as before, the landlord exchanged this remarkable animal for one from his own common flock, and thelad found himself fooled a second time. Going back a third time, he told the story to the North Wind, who gave the angry lad a stout stick which, when it had been told to "lay on," would never cease striking till the lad bade it to stop.At the tavern, the landlord, thinking there was some useful enchantment in the stick, tried to steal it also, but the boy was wide awake. He shouted, "Lay on," and the landlord found himself being clubbed till he was nearly dead, and gave back all that he had taken. Then the boy went home, and he and his mother lived rich and happy ever afterwards.Tug's vigorous applause aroused the attention of the other two, who may have been listening a little, and Aleck asked what the book was."Dr. Dasent's 'Norse Tales,'" Katy replied."Who or what is 'Norse'?" Jim inquired.This was a question Tug had been wanting to ask too, but had felt ashamed to expose his ignorance—one of the few things not really mean which a boy has a right to be ashamed of."The Norse people," Katy said, "are the people of Scandinavia (or theNorthmen, as they were called in ancient times), and these stories are those that old people have told their children in Norway and Sweden for—oh! forhundreds of years. Many are about animals, and others—""Give us one about an animal," Tug interrupted.Very well, here's one that tells why the bear has so short a tail:One day the Bear met the Fox, who came slinking along with a string of fish he had stolen.'Whence did you get these?' asked the Bear.'Oh, my Lord Bruin, I've been out fishing, and caught them,' said the Fox.So the Bear had a mind to learn to fish too, and bade the Fox tell him how he was to set about it.'Oh, it's an easy craft for you,' said the Fox, 'and one soon learned. You've only to go upon the ice, and cut a hole, and stick your tail down into it; and so you must go on holding it there as long as you can. You're not to mind if your tail smarts a little; that's when the fish bite. The longer you hold it, the more fish you'll get; and then, all at once, out with it, with a cross pull sideways, and with a strong pull too.'Yes; the Bear did as the Fox said, and held his tail a long, long time down in the hole, until it was fast frozen in. Then he pulled it out with a cross pull, and it snapped short off. That's why Bruin goes about with a stumpy tail to this day."LAY ON!"When this short and stirring tale of a tail had been concluded, the Captain's voice was heard."Now for bed!" he ordered, winding up his watch, whose golden hands pointed to nine o'clock.Partially undressing, they tucked themselves into their quilts and blankets on the crackling straw, and silence followed. Sleep was slow to close the eyes of the younger ones, who were kept awake by their strange situation; and Rex, lying at Katy's feet, frequently raised his head as the roaring wind shrieked through the tall trees outside, or rattled a loose board in the roof with a strange noise.The first one to awake next morning was Aleck, who looked at his watch by the glimmer of the coals, and was surprised to find it after eight o'clock, though only a gray light came through the little window of the cabin. Creeping out, he raked the embers together, laid on some fresh wood, and hung the kettle on the spike. Then he called his companions, who sat up and rubbed their eyes."Katy, you lie still till the boys go off. We'll bring you some water, and then you can have the house to yourself for a while. Get out of this, you fellows! Jim, bring a pail of water for the cook. Tug, you and I will go and see how the boat has stood the night."Two minutes later they were gone. After Jim had brought the fresh water (he was slow about it, because hehad to rechop the well-hole) the girl sprang up to make herself neat, and was busy at breakfast when the boys pounded the door like a battering-ram with the axe-handle, "so as surely to be heard," and begged to know if they might come in."Good-morning!" she greeted them. "How is the weather?""Weather!" exclaimed Tug, spreading his hands before the fire, and working his ears out from underneath a huge red comforter just as I have seen a turtle slowly push his head beyond the folded skin of his neck. "Weather! It's the roughest day I ever saw. I don't believe old Zach himself could skate a rod against that wind."(Zach was a six-foot-three lumberman in Monore, who was noted for his great strength.)"Then how can we go on?" asked Katy, dropping eggshells into the coffee-pot."I'm afraid we can't," Aleck said, soberly; "at least, until this gale goes down. It is very, very cold, and I'm sure we are much better off here. Don't you all think so?""Youbet!" shouted Tug."Youbet!" Jim echoed."Then I must worry about dinner," said Katy, with a pretended groan which made them all laugh.At breakfast came the promised chops. Then, whileKaty and Jim set the cabin into neat shape, the older lads went after more wood, and, having done this, walked out to the neighboring marsh and cut great armfuls of wild rice and rushes, with which to make their straw beds thicker and softer. This, and other things, took up the morning, and then all came in to help and hinder Katy while she got dinner.When it had been set out they found half a boiled ham, potatoes, some fried onions ("arctic voyagers always need to eat onions to prevent scurvy, you know," Katy explained), and even bread and butter; but the last item represented almost the end of their only loaf.In the afternoon the wind moderated, the clouds that had made it so dark in the morning cleared away, and the sun came out. Under the shelter of the long wharf and breakwater they walked out on the ice to the lighthouse, where they had been so often in midsummer; but now it was shut up, for there would be no use in burning a signal-light on the lake after the cold weather of the fall had put a stop to navigation, until spring recalled the idle vessels.Supper was simple, but they had lots of fun over it, and then all set at work to help Aleck make straps of canvas to put over the shoulder and across the breast when they were hauling on the drag-rope. This contrivance saved chafing, and gave a better pull. Jim had pooh-poohed the takingof a sail-needle and some waxed twine along as unnecessary, but Aleck had persisted; and here was its service the very first day. Before the trip was through with, everybody wanted a hundred little articles they did not possess, worse than they would have missed this sail-needle had it not been brought.Chapter VII.THE FIRST DAY ON THE LAKE.No howling gale disturbed their rest that night, and on the next morning, which was Friday, the third day out, breakfast had been disposed of long before the hour of rising on the previous day. What had they for breakfast? Hot and tender buckwheat cakes, with syrup made from maple sugar melted in a tin cup. The boiled ham and some crackers were put where they could be got at easily for luncheon.The stowing of the loose goods in the boat took no longer than Katy required to get the mess kit packed after breakfast. As the day was fine, and the ice, as far as they could see to the southward, whither their course lay, was smooth and free from snow, the sled was loaded with cut wood and rushes, ready for making a fire, and Jim was appointed to drag it.As they were leaving the cabin, after a last look to see that nothing had been forgotten, Katy spoke up:"Why can't we take along some of this nice straw? It doesn't weigh anything to speak of.""Oh, we can't," says Jim, crossly. "Girls are always trying to do things they know nothing about.""May's well begin to rough it now as any time; can't expect a cabin and a straw mattress every night," was Tug's somewhat gruff remark as he went to the sledge."But," the girl persisted, rather piqued when she saw how her suggestion had been received, "it might be very nice to spread it on the floor of the tent. Seems to me you might take it."She was talking to Aleck now, who, she knew by his face, opposed the plan; but he, seeing how much in earnest she was, went back, gathered up a big armful of the cleanest straw, and heaped it in the stern of the boat, while she brought a second bundle.This matter settled, Aleck and Tug put their heads through the new harness, and were soon rushing along at a stirring pace, while Katy skated behind, holding on to the stern of the boat to steady it; Jim followed with his sled, and Rex galloped here and there as suited him.The ice for miles together had been swept clean by the wind, and was like a vast, glaring sheet of plate-glass. Most of it was a deep, brilliant green. Here and there would be stretches of milky ice, and now and then great rounded patches would suddenly meet them, which were black or deep brown, and at first frightened them by making thembelieve a patch of open water suddenly yawned in their path. But, when they examined closely, they could see that this black ice was two or three feet thick, like all the rest on the open lake.They were never at any time more than a mile or so from the edge of the great marshes which bordered the low margin of the lake, and at noon they knew they had skated twelve miles, by reaching a certain island standing just in front of the reedy shallows.Thither they gladly turned for luncheon; skates were unbuckled, a big fire was built, the snow was cleared away, and the spare canvas spread down to sit upon, while Katy prepared to warm up the extra supply of coffee she had made in the morning for this purpose.Not much talking had been done on the march; breath was too badly needed to be wasted in that way; but now "tongues were loosed," and a rattling conversation kept time with the crackle of the dead sticks on the fire."Captain," said Tug, "have you noticed how that ridge in the ice bends just ahead, and seems to stand across our course?""Yes, I have, and I fear it will be troublesome to cross. Jimkin, you're nimble; climb that cottonwood, and tell us what you can see.""All right," said Jim, and was quickly in the tree-top."It looks like a rough, broken ridge, stretching clear to shore. I guess we'll have to climb over it. I can't see any break.""Where do you think is the easiest place?""About straight ahead, where you see that highest point. Right beside it is a kind o' low spot, I think.""Well, then," said the Captain, "we'll aim for that. Hurry up your lunch, Katy, and let's be off."Half an hour later they arrived at the bad place."It must be ahummock," said Katy, "such as I have read about in Dr. Kane's book—only not so large, I suppose. He says that the ice-sheet, or floe, gets cracked and separated a little; then the two floes will come together again with such force that they lap over one another, or else grind together, and burst up edgewise along the seam.""That's just the way this is; but, hummock or no hummock, it must be crossed," said Aleck."Mebbe I could find a better place," suggested Jim, "if I should go along a little way.""Well, try it, Youngster. And, Tug, suppose you take a scout in the other direction."Tug went off, but soon returned, reporting a worse instead of better appearance, and Aleck, who had climbed over, came back to say that the ridge was about twenty-five yards wide."How does it look?" asked Katy."Why, it looks as though a lot of big cakes of ice had been piled up on edge, and then frozen into that rough shape, or lack of shape. I should say the ridge is ten feet high in the middle, and on the other side it is a straight jump down for about six feet. But it's worse everywhere else. We must take our skates off the first thing."This done, they stood up, ready to drag the boat as near to the hummock as possible. But it was hard pulling, for the slope was pretty steep and rough."Where's that Jim, I wonder?" cried Aleck. "I'll teach The Youngster not to run off the minute any work is to be done.Jim!"But no boy answered the call, nor several others. Tug stood up on the boat, and Katy climbed to a high point of ice, but neither could see anything. Then they all became alarmed, fearing he might have fallen into one of those holes that here and there are found in the thickest ice, and always stay open. It is an easy matter to skate into one, but a very hard one to get out again. It was the thought of this that made Katy run in the direction whither Jim had started, but her brother called her back."Wait, Katy. We'll put on our skates. Probably The Youngster's hiding, and I'll box his ears when I catch him. This is no time for fooling."With quick, nervous fingers they fastened their straps, and then rushed down along the foot of the hummock as though on a race, Tug carrying one of the drag-ropes. The tracks could be followed easily enough until they left the good ice and turned in towards the hummock, where they came to an end, which looked as though Jim might have taken off his skates. Here the boys hallooed, then climbed to the top of a great, upturned table of blue ice, and called again. But the most complete silence followed their words—such a silence as can never be known on land among the creaking trees or rustling grass; an absolute, painful stillness. Not even an echo came back.At this they were puzzled and frightened, and Katy wanted to cry, but fought back her tears. They descended, and went slowly onward, now and then getting upon elevated points, and calling. At last they stopped, utterly at their wits' end where or how to search next, and Katy's tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked."Cheer up, Sis," said Aleck, and took her hand in his as they skated slowly onward; "cheer up! we'll try again on that big block ahead."This block overlooked a broader part of the hummock, and wasn't far from land. They struggled over the jagged border, and hoisted Katy upon it to see what she could see."Nothing," was her report; "nothing but ice, and ice,and ice, and a gray edge of marsh. Oh, Jim! Jim! where are you?""Here—help me out."Each looked at the other in amazement, for the voice, though faint, seemed right beside them."Here, down between the cakes—help me out."The words came distinctly, and gave them a clew. Katy peeped over the farther edge of the block, and there she saw the little fellow's face peering up at her out of the greenish light of a sort of pit into which he had fallen. Two great cakes of ice had been thrown up side by side, leaving a space about two feet wide and ten feet deep between them. The blowing snow that filled most of the crevices of the hummock had here formed a bridge, which had let Jim through when he stepped upon it, never suspecting the chasm it concealed."Hurt?" asked Tug."Not a bit, but pretty well scared. I thought you fellows were never coming. I've been in here two hours.""Two hours! Oho, that's good! Twenty minutes would about fill the bill. You ain't tired so quick of a warm, snug place like that, are you?""Just you try it, and see how you like its snugness. Drop me an end of that rope, will you?""Give him the rope's end, Tug; he deserves it in anotherway, but we haven't time to-day. Now, then—yo-heave-o!" and up came the lost member, not much the worse for his adventure.Then began the difficult work of crossing the hummock. In front of the boat lay a steep slope of glassy ice, and beyond and above that a series of steps and jagged points, forming about such a plateau as a big heap of building-stone would make, only here the fragments were larger.All four, going to the top of the first slope, pulled the boat upward until the forward runners were just balanced on the crest. Then a hook on one of the ropes came loose; four young people fell sprawling; and the boat dropped backward with a rush to the very bottom of the ridge, where it upset."Now," said Aleck, when they had set the boat upright again, and found nothing broken; "now let us take out all the loose stuff, and so lighten her as much as we can."This was done."We three fellows," was the Captain's next order, "will drag her up again, and Katy must go behind with the boat-hook, and stick it into the ice behind the boat, to hold it, like a chock-block under a wagon wheel, whenever it shows any signs of slipping back. Now, everybody be careful."The steady pulling, with Katy's pushing and guiding, gotthe front runners safely over the edge of the sloping side, and gave them a chance to rest. But when they tried to move it forward enough to bring the stern up, the boat couldn't be budged, because the ice in front was so full of ruts and ridges.Chapter VIII.JIM'S REBELLION."I tell you what, boys," Tug cried, after a great effort, "there's no use trying any more till we have smoothed a road, and I think, Captain, you'd better set all hands at that.""I'm afraid that is so. Jim, please go back and get the axe, the hatchet, and the shovel. Now, while Tug and I dig at this road, you and Jim, Katy, can bring some of the freight up here, or perhaps take it clear across, and so save time. The small sled will help you."It was tedious labor all around, and the wind began to blow in a way they would have thought very cold had they not been so warm and busy with work. As fast as a rod or two of road was cleared, the four took hold and dragged the boat ahead. These slow advances used up so much time that when the plateau had been crossed, the sun, peering through dark clouds, was almost level with the horizon. It now remained to get down the sudden pitch and rough slope on the farther side. But this was a task of no small importance, and Aleck called a council on the subject.CROSSING THE HUMMOCK."My lambs," he began (the funny word took the edge off the unfortunate look of affairs, as it was intended to do)—"my lambs, it is growing late, and it's doubtful if we can get this big boat down that pair of stairs before dark. Don't you think I'd better order Jim and Katy to pack up the small sled with tent and bedding and kitchen-stuff?""'Twon't hold it all!" interrupted Jim."Then, Youngster, you can come back after the bedding. Take the cooking things first, and you and Katy go back to the island where we lunched, and make a fire. Tug and I—eh, Tug?—will stay here and chop away till dark, and then we'll go back to camp with you when you come after the blankets, and help you carry the tent.""Are you going to leave the boat here all night?" asked Jim, in alarm."Why, of course; what'll harm it? Now be off, and make a big fire."So the younger ones departed, and by and by Jim returned for a second load. He found the two older boys cutting a sloping path through the little ice bluff on the farther side of the hummock, and pretty tired of it. They were not yet done—the shovel not being of much service in working the hard blue ice—but it was now getting too dark to do more, so they piled the snug bundles of blankets into Jim's sled box, and gave him the rope, while Tug and Aleck puttheir shoulders under opposite ends of the tent roll. Then together they all skated away through the thickening windy twilight, and over the ashy-gray plain of ice, towards where Katy's fire glowed like a red spark on the distant shore.It was a weary but not at all disheartened party that lounged in the open door of the tent that night, while a big fire blazed in front, and supper was cooking. This was the first time the sail had been spread as a tent, and it answered the purpose nicely, giving plenty of room. The straw Katy had been so anxious about had to be left in the boat, so that they got no good of it. Jim chaffed his sister a good deal about this, and Tug rather encouraged him, thinking it was a fair chance for fun at Katy's expense; but when he saw that Katy really was feeling badly, not at Jim's teasing words, but for fear she had made the boys useless trouble, Aleck came to the rescue. Seizing The Youngster by the shoulder, he spun him round like a teetotum, and was going to box his ears, when Katy cried out, "Oh, don't!" and saved that young gentleman's skin for the present."Then I'll punish you in another way. Take your knife, go over there to the marsh"—it was perhaps a hundred yards away—"and cut as many rushes as you can carry."The Youngster never moved."I don't want the rushes," said Katy, trying to keep the peace, but her brother paid no heed."Did you hear what I said?" he asked again of Jim."Yes, I did.""Well, that was a Captain's Order, and I advise you to obey.""Do it yourself!" shouted the angry Jim, sitting down by the fire.Aleck looked at him an instant, saw his sulky, set lips, and then walked over to a willow bush near by. From the centre of this bush he cut a thriving switch, and carefully trimmed off all the twigs and crumpled leaves. It was as pliant and elastic as whalebone. It whistled through the air, when it was waved, like a wire or a thin lash. It would hug the skin it was laid upon, and wrap tightly around a boy's legs, and sting at the tip like a hornet. It wouldn't raise a welt upon the skin, as an iron rod or a rawhide might do, but it would hurt just as bad while it was touching you.Jim knew all this, and it flashed through his brain, every bit of it, as he saw Aleck trim the switch."Better scoot, Youngster," Tug advised, with a grin that was meant kindly, but made Jim madder than ever."Please get the rushes," coaxed Katy.But when Aleck came back the boy still sat there, defiant of orders."Now, James," he said, as he stood over him, "you have been ordered by your Captain to go and get some rushes.You refuse. You are insubordinate. I'll give you just one minute to make up your mind what you will do."Jim glanced up, saw the determined face and stalwart form of his brother; saw Tug keeping quiet and showing no intention of interfering; saw the awful willow. He rose quickly from his seat, and darted away into the scrub alders and willows as hard as he could run, but not towards the rushes.Aleck didn't follow him. "Never mind," he said. "Go on with your supper, Katy. That boy gets those rushes before he has any grub to eat or blankets to lie in, unless you both vote against it, and I don't think you will, for it was a reasonable order.""Well, Captain," said Tug, "I think we might ease up on it a little. It was a little rough on The Youngster sending him alone in the dark to get the stuff. If you had sent me with him, I suppose he'd have gone fast enough. If you'll say so now, I allow he'll surrender and save his hide. For that matter, I don't mind getting 'em alone if you'll let the kid go. I was going to propose it myself just as you gave the order.""That's very kind of you, Tug; but I couldn't allow you to get them alone. You may help if you want to.""May I tell him so?" Katy asked, eagerly."Yes, if you can find him.""I'll find him—look out for the bacon;" and the girl went off into the gloom and the bushes, calling, "Jim! Jim!"It was a good while before she came back, and the boys, tired of waiting, had forked out the bacon, and were eating their meal, which was what the poets call "frugal," but immensely relished all the same.Suddenly Katy and the culprit stalked out of the ring of shadows that encircled the fire, bearing huge bundles of yellow rushes."That ain't fair!" cried Tug. "You ought to have let me gone, Katy.""Oh, I didn't mind, and I wanted Jim to hurry back.""I didn't want her to carry none," said Jim, more eager about self-defense than grammar. "If I give up, I want to give up all over, and not half-way.""Good for you, Youngster," Aleck shouted, leaping up. "Give us your hand!"Thus peace was restored, and the boy sat down happily to his well-earned supper, while the older ones spread the crisp reed-straw. Finding there wasn't quite enough, they went off to the marshes and brought two more armfuls, which made a warm and springy couch for the whole party.These "rushes" were not rushes, properly speaking, but the wild rice which grows so abundantly on the borders ofthe great lakes, and throughout the little ponds and shallow sheets of water that are dotted so thickly over Wisconsin and southern Minnesota. It is like a small bamboo jungle, for the close-crowding stiff reeds often stand ten feet or more above the water. They bear upon the upper part of their stalks a few ribbon-like leaves, and each reed carries a plume which in autumn contains the seeds, or the "rice."The botanical name of the plant isZizania aquatica; and among it flourish not only the common white and yellow water-lilies, but that splendid one, theNelumbium luteum, which Western people call the lotus.This rice formed an important part of the food of the Indians who lived where it grew. In and out of the marshes run narrow canals, kept open by the currents, and through these the Indian women would paddle their canoes, seeking the ripe heads, which they would cut off and take ashore to be threshed out in the wigwam, or else they would shake and rub out the rice into a basket as they went along. At home the rice would be crushed into a coarse flour in their stone mortars, then made into cakes baked on the surface of smooth stones heated in the coals.The stalks, round, smooth, and straight, were of service to the Indians also. Out of them they made mats and thatching for their lodges, and they served as excellent arrow-shafts, a point of fire-hardened wood, of bone, or of flint having been fixed in the end.JIM AND KATY BRINGING THE RUSHES TO CAMP.In warm weather these broad, submerged marshes, undulating in color-waves—green in spring, golden-yellow in midsummer, and warm reddish-brown in October—as the breeze swept across the vast extent of pliant reeds, formed the home of a great variety of animals, whose numbers were almost unlimited. There, in the darkly stained water, lurked hosts of small shells and insects—dragon-flies, beetles, and aquatic bugs and flies, whose habits were always a matter for curiosity. Then, where insects and mollusks were so numerous, of course there were plenty of fishes, great and small, the little ones feeding on the bugs and snails, the larger on them, and some giants—like the big pike—on these again. Nor did this end the list. After the big fish came the muskrat; after the muskrat—in the old days, at least—sneaked the wolverine; after the wolverine crept the stealthy panther; and for the panther an Indian lay in wait.The marshes were full of birds, too, in the bird-season—small, piping wrens; suspicious sparrows; ducks and rails and gallinules of many kinds and many voices; herons and cranes and hawks; coming and going with the seasons, making the yellow reeds populous with busy lives, and vocal with their merriment. Now, however, all was silent.Our travellers would have preferred skating across themarshes rather than outside upon the windy lake, but it was reported that warm springs came out of the ooze in many parts of the rice morass, keeping the ice so weak (though not melting it quite away) as to make skating unsafe. This danger was not so great, perhaps, in a winter so unusually cold as this one was proving itself to be, as it had been shown to be in milder seasons; but they did not want to run risks."How noisy it will be all around this islet in three months from now!" Aleck remarked, as they were preparing for bed. "Then you will hardly be able to hear yourself speak for the frogs.""Before there were any lighthouses on the lake," said Tug, "sailing was pretty much guesswork; but my father told me the sailors, when they approached the shore, used to know where they were by listening to the bull-frogs. The bulls would call out the names of their ports, you know: San—dúsk—y! To—l-é-e-e—do! Mon—róe! De—trói-i-i-i—it!"Chapter IX.SKATING BY COMPASS.The next day was Sunday. Fortunately, the sacred day had found them in such a position that they could spend it quietly. Katy persuaded Jim and the two young men to listen while she read them some chapters from the little Testament she had carefully packed among her "necessary articles."This, together with the work thatmustbe done, took up a good part of the morning, and the afternoon was spent in making a trip to the boat, looking the situation over carefully, and laying plans for a very early start the next day. Supper over, they soon crawled into bed, and woke at day break, ready for work, and all the better for their day of rest.After a hasty breakfast camp was broken, and work was resumed at the hummock. All hands labored with such a will that long before noon they had let the boat down to the smooth white plain upon the other side; and though it got away from them at the last minute, and went spinning off on its own account, no harm was done.The onward march was then resumed, and splendid headway made. At noon a short halt was called and gladly accepted, all lounging upon the straw and boxes in the boat, munching crackers and cheese, and drinking Katy's cold chocolate. The sun had been out all the morning, and the ice was not only a trifle soft, but frequently rough, which had made the skating and dragging a little harder work than before.No land appeared ahead, but Aleck knew the name and position of a lighthouse just visible upon an island at the mouth of a river away off at their right. He therefore took out of his pocket a small map of the western end of the lake, that he had copied from a big chart, and began to study it. He found that it was about fifteen miles across the end of the lake to a certain cape on the southern shore, which lay beyond the great marshy bay into which emptied the river just mentioned. He took the direction of this cape from where they were at present, by compass, and made a note of it in his pocket-book. It was almost exactly southeast. Aleck reckoned on reaching so near there by sundown that the party could go ashore if very hard pushed by any misfortune or bad turn of the weather, though it was too long a march to make unless they were compelled."But supposing we find open water, and have to change our course?" asked Katy."Well, we shall know, at all events, that we mustn't go east of southeast, and must try to keep as close to that direction as possible. I don't like this sunshine and westerly breeze. I'd much rather the weather kept real cold.""Why?" said Jim. "It's much nicer when it's warm.""I'm afraid of snow and fogs, Youngster. Now let us be off."No snow or fog came to bother them, however, and at sunset they were out of sight of any landmark, and travelling by the compass, like a ship at sea.You may ask, How could they be sure they were following it truly, since they had no object, like a long bowsprit, to guide the eye in ranging their course into line with the needle point, as the steersman on a ship does when he glances across his binnacle?This is the plan they took: The compass was a small one, but it was hung in a box so as always to stand level. It was, in fact, an old boat compass which Mr. Kincaid had had for many years. This was set exactly in the middle of the seat at the stern of the boat, where Katy still skated, with her hands resting upon the stern-board. Here she could keep her eye easily upon the face of the compass, and make a straight line from its pointer through the middle of the boat. When the compass point "southeast" and the stem-post of the yawl were in line, she knew they weregoing on a straight course. When these were out of line, she knew her team had swerved, and she called out "Right!" or "Left!" to bring them back to the true course, just as a quartermaster would order "Port!" and "Starboard!" to his helmsman.The sun went down slowly at their right hands as they rushed along, and as Jim saw his shadow stretching taller and taller, he found it difficult to keep pace with the older lads. Noting this, the Captain ordered a halt, and put Jim into the boat as a passenger, tying his sled behind."Don't you want to ride also?" asked Tug of Katy, very gallantly.Katy was tired, and one of her skate-straps chafed her instep a little, but she didn't propose to give up."Oh, no," she said, cheerily. "I have so much help by resting on the stern of the boat that I can go a long time yet before I give in. Besides, who would steer?"So they rushed away again, the clink-clink of their strokes keeping perfect time on the smooth ice. All at once—it was about four o'clock in the afternoon now—a dark line appeared ahead, and in a few moments more they could plainly see open water across their path.When they became sure of this they went more slowly, and in about ten minutes had approached as close as they dared to a wide space like a river, beyond which white icecould be seen again. Here all knew they must spend the night, for it would be foolish to attempt to cross before morning."Well," remarked Tug, as they came to a halt, "according to orders, it's my duty to take the axe and cut fuel; so I can loaf, for there's no wood to chop round here that I see;" and he pretended to search in every direction."Loaf? Not a bit of it," shouted Aleck, with a grin. "My order to you is, Unload that tent, and set it up on the ice! Jim will help you. I'll help Katy make a fire.""I wish you would," said the girl. "I'm 'fraid I shouldn't make it go very well out here. I have never built a kitchen fire on ice.""This is the best way."Saying this, Aleck took two of the largest pieces of wood from Jim's sled, and laid them down a little way apart. Then he laid across them a platform of the next largest sticks, and on top of this arranged his kindling, ready to touch a match to."We won't set the fire going till we are quite ready for it, and—""But I'm cold," Jim complained."Well, Youngster, I've heard that the Indians never let their boys come near the lodge fire to get warm, but bid them run till they work the chill off. You'd bettermove livelier if you want to get warm, for we can't afford any more fire than is necessary for a short bit of cooking. Katy, what do you propose to have?""I thought I would make tea, boil potatoes, and bake some johnny-cake in my skillet. May I?""Oh, yes, but you must economize fuel."With this warning, Aleck struck a match, and the little fire was soon blazing merrily in the "wooden stove," as Katy called it. Only one or two sticks had been burned clear through before the fire had done its work, and was put out in order to save every splinter of wood possible. They sat down in the shelter of the boat to eat their dinner, and enjoyed it very much, in spite of the cold, their loneliness, and the gathering darkness.Meanwhile the tent had been set up. Over its icy floor were laid the thwarts taken out of the boat, the rudder, and two box covers, which nearly covered the whole space. On top of this was placed as much straw as could be spared, and upon the straw Aleck and Tug spread their blankets.Dinner out of the way, the after-part of the boat was cleared out and re-arranged, until a level space was left. Here, upon a heap of straw, beds for the younger ones were arranged. Then the spare canvas was spread across like an awning, and was held up on an oar laid lengthwise. This made a snug cabin for Katy and the wearied Jim, whowere not long in creeping into it. Rex followed, and slept in the straw at their feet, which was good for them all.
"'Allbloodylay the untrodden snow,'"
"'Allbloodylay the untrodden snow,'"
as Kate exclaimed, misquoting her "Hohenlinden" to suit the red glow of the rich evening light.
"Hurrah for supper!" screamed Jim; and with an extra spurt they swung the boat up to the bank.
A little sweeping with a broom made of an alder branch cleared the cabin of the snow that had blown into the cracks and fallen down the mud-and-stone chimney. This done, Aleck called to them to listen to his first orders, which he had written down in a note-book, and now read as follows:
Captain's Order No. 1.—Any order given by the Captain must be obeyed by the person to whom it is addressed, unless his reason for not doing so will not keep till camping-time; merelynot likingthe duty is no excuse.Captain's Order No. 2.—The Captain will say when and where camp shall be made, and immediately upon stopping to camp the duties of each person shall be taken upas follows: the Captain shall secure the boat, get out the tent, and proceed to set it up; Tug shall take the axe and get fuel for the fire; Kate shall see to the building of the fire and the preparation of food; Jim shall help Kate, particularly in carrying articles needed, and in getting water; and all, when these special duties are finished, shall report to the Captain for further duty.Captain's Order No. 3.—Any complaints or suggestions must be made in council, which will commence after camp work is completed and supper is over, and not before.
Captain's Order No. 1.—Any order given by the Captain must be obeyed by the person to whom it is addressed, unless his reason for not doing so will not keep till camping-time; merelynot likingthe duty is no excuse.
Captain's Order No. 2.—The Captain will say when and where camp shall be made, and immediately upon stopping to camp the duties of each person shall be taken upas follows: the Captain shall secure the boat, get out the tent, and proceed to set it up; Tug shall take the axe and get fuel for the fire; Kate shall see to the building of the fire and the preparation of food; Jim shall help Kate, particularly in carrying articles needed, and in getting water; and all, when these special duties are finished, shall report to the Captain for further duty.
Captain's Order No. 3.—Any complaints or suggestions must be made in council, which will commence after camp work is completed and supper is over, and not before.
"There," said Aleck, "do you agree to that?"
"Yes—agreed!" shouted three voices in chorus.
"Then pitch in, all of you; you know your work."
At this Tug seized the axe, Aleck and Jim went to the sledge, and Katy began to kindle a little blaze on the hearth with some bits of dry wood she found lying about, so that when Tug had brought an armful of sticks, a good fire was quickly crackling. Then the iron pot, full of water, was hung upon the old spike, where the blaze began curling around its three little black feet in a most loving way.
"Jimkin," called the girl to her brother, who was gazing with delight at the bright fire, "Jimkin, bring me all those paper packages at the stern of the boat, and be careful of the white one—it's eggs."
"I guess there won't be much tent to set up to-night, Aleck," he remarked, as he found the Captain, who had hauled the sledge well up on the bank and tied it securely to a tree, now busy in dragging out the sail.
"No," was the reply, "but the canvas'll come handy. Tell Tug I say he'd better get a big heap of wood together, for we're going to have a cold night. The wind has turned to the north, and is rising."
When he had taken the canvas up to the cabin, he called Jim to help him, and they brought in the mess chest, the rolls of bedding, and the piece of spare canvas which had covered the prow. Then, telling Jim to take the little sled that had been dragged behind the boat, and haul to the door the wood Tug had cut among the trees not far away, Aleck seized the shovel and began heaping snow against the northern side of the house, where there were many cracks between the lower logs. But his hard work to shut them up in this way seemed to be in vain, for the wind, which was blowing harder and harder every minute, whisked the snow away about as fast as he was able to pile it up. Kate, stepping out to see what he was about, came to his rescue with a happy thought.
"I read in Dr. Kane's book of arctic travels, that when they make houses of snow they throw water on them, which freezes, and holds them firm and tight. Couldn't you do that here? It's cold enough to freeze anything."
Aleck thought he might, and bidding Kate go back to her fireside, he called the other boys to help him; then, while Jim stuffed the cracks with snow, Aleck and Tug alternately brought water from a hole cut in the river ice, and dashed it against the chinking. Some of the water splashed through, and a good deal was tossed back in their faces and benumbed their hands, so that it was hard, cold work; but before long a crust had formed over the snow-stuffed cracks, and Katy came to the door to say that she couldn't feel a draught anywhere. The roof was pretty good, and when, tired and hungry, but warm with their exercise (except as to their toes and fingers), the three lads went in and shut the door, they found their quarters very snug, and didn't mind how loud the gale howled among the trees outside. Rex, especially, seemed to enjoy it, curling down at the corner of the fireplace as though very much at home.
Meanwhile Katy bustled about, setting out plates, knives, and forks on the top of the mess chest, which she had covered with the clean white paper in which her packages had been wrapped. She had put eight eggs to boil in the kettle, which were now done, and were carefully fished out, while the coffee-pot was bubbling on the coals, and letting fragrant jets of steam escape from under the loosely fitting cover. A cut loaf of bread lay on the table, and beside it a tumbler of currant jelly, "as sure as I am a Dutchman"—which was Tug's favorite way of putting a truth very strongly indeed, though he wasn't that kind of a man at all. The eagerness to taste this sweetmeat brought out the melancholy fact that by some accident there was only one spoon in the whole kit.
SUPPER IN THE LOG CABIN.
SUPPER IN THE LOG CABIN.
"We'll fix that all right this evening," Aleck remarked. "I'll whittle wooden ones out of sycamore."
"Shall I broil some mutton-chops, or will you save those for breakfast?"
"Broil 'em now," cried Jim.
"Hold your opinion, Youngster, till your elders are heard," was Tug's rejoinder. "I vote we save 'em."
"So do I."
"And I."
"Done," says Captain Aleck. "Give us the chops for breakfast, Miss Housekeeper."
"Then supper's all ready," she said, and took her seat on a stick of wood, pouring and passing the coffee, while the eggs and the bread and butter went round. By the time the meal was finished it had become dark, but this did not matter, since there was no need to go out of doors.
"How shall I wash the dishes?" asked Katy, with a comical grin, as she rose from the table. "I couldn't bring a big pan."
"Well," suggested Aleck, "you can clean out your kettle,refill it with water—Jim, there's business for you!—and then wash them in that."
"That's a matter never bothered me much whenIwas camping," added Tug, dryly. "I just scrubbed the plates with a wisp of grass, and cleaned the knives and forks by jabbing 'em into the ground a few times."
While the dishes were washing Aleck opened the tent bundle, and laid the mast across two pegs that somebody had driven into the north wall of the room just under the ceiling beams, perhaps to hang fishing-poles on. Then, with Tug's aid, he tied to the mast the inner hem of the sail-cloth, which thus hung loosely against the wall, like a big curtain, shutting out every draught.
"That's splendid!" cried Katy, watching them from the end of the room where the fire was.
"So isthis!" came a voice from overhead, making them all look up in surprise.
It was Jim, who, unnoticed by any one, had clambered into the loft, which had been floored over about two thirds of the room, and who was now thrusting his red face down through the open part.
"What do you think I've found?"
"Give it up. I knew of a man who died after asking conundrums all his life," answered Tug, gravely, "and I've fought shy of 'em since."
"Tell us at once, Jimkin," called out Aleck.
"Straw!" shouted Jim.
"Pshaw!" was the next rejoinder heard.
"No rhymes, Katy," Aleck admonished. "Is it clean, Youngster?"
"Cleaner than he is, I should say, by his face," said Tug, and with some reason, for the loft was dusty.
"Don't know; you can see for yourself," and down came a great yellow armful.
It was pounced upon, and, proving dry and fresh, the delighted Jim was ordered to send down all he could find, which was laid on the floor, not far from the fire, and covered with the spare canvas. This made a soft sort of mattress, upon which each one could spread his blankets, and sleep with great comfort, since there was plenty for all.
"Sha'n't have so good a bed as this another night," groaned Aleck.
"Can't tell—maybe better!" said the cheerful Tug.
The warmest place was set apart for Katy, and Aleck made a small screen, covered with a newspaper curtain, which separated her from the other three, who were to sleep side by side. These preparations made, the fire was heaped high with fresh wood, and then the little quartet took their ease, lounging on the springy straw before it,and indulging in a quiet talk over the busy day just finished, or what they were likely to meet on the morrow.
Aleck said something about being able to travel by compass in case they were caught in a snow-storm, which was what he dreaded the most, when Jim asked him to explain the compass to him, leaving Katy's side and going over to where his big brother was stretched out at the other corner of the fireplace. The girl, thus deserted, went to the valise in which she kept her small articles, and came back with a book.
NORSE TALES.
"What are you reading?" asked Tug, who was the last boy in the world to be interested in a book, unless it was one about animals, but who had nothing else to do just then.
"A book of old stories."
"What about?—adventures, and things of that sort?"
"Partly. Some of them are fairy stories—about queer little people, and animals that talk, and heavenly beings that help lost children, and people that have hard times."
"Why, those are the very fellows we want to see. Let's hear about 'em—mebbe we can give 'em a job."
"Well, if you would like it, I'll read you this story I've just begun," said Katy, good-naturedly.
"Much obliged. I think that would be tip-top."
So Katy read to him, as he lounged on the straw and gazed into the bright fire, an old myth-story of the North Wind. How, away in a far corner of Norway, there once lived a widow with one son. It was midwinter, and she was weak, so the lad was obliged to go to the "safe" (orcellar dug near the house, where the food was kept) to bring the materials for the morning meal. The first time he went, and the second, and again, at the third attempt, the fierce North Wind blew the food out of his hands. These three losses vexed the lad greatly, and he resolved to go to the North Wind and demand the food back. After long travelling he found the home of the giant, far towards the pole, and made his demand. The North Wind heard him, and gave him a cloth which would serve all the finest dishes in the world whenever the boy chose to spread it and call for them. On his way home he stopped at a tavern for the night, and, spreading his cloth, had a feast. The landlady was astonished, as well she might be, and thinking what a useful thing such a tablecloth would be in a hotel, she stole it while the lad was asleep, and put in its place one that looked like it, but which had no secret power.
The lad, not suspecting the change, went home, and boasted gleefully to his mother of what he had brought. But when he tried it, of course the false cloth could do nothing, and the old lady both laughed at him and scolded him. Vexed again, the lad hastened back, and accused the North Wind of fraud. So the giant gave him a ram which would coin golden ducats when commanded. Stopping at the tavern as before, the landlord exchanged this remarkable animal for one from his own common flock, and thelad found himself fooled a second time. Going back a third time, he told the story to the North Wind, who gave the angry lad a stout stick which, when it had been told to "lay on," would never cease striking till the lad bade it to stop.
At the tavern, the landlord, thinking there was some useful enchantment in the stick, tried to steal it also, but the boy was wide awake. He shouted, "Lay on," and the landlord found himself being clubbed till he was nearly dead, and gave back all that he had taken. Then the boy went home, and he and his mother lived rich and happy ever afterwards.
Tug's vigorous applause aroused the attention of the other two, who may have been listening a little, and Aleck asked what the book was.
"Dr. Dasent's 'Norse Tales,'" Katy replied.
"Who or what is 'Norse'?" Jim inquired.
This was a question Tug had been wanting to ask too, but had felt ashamed to expose his ignorance—one of the few things not really mean which a boy has a right to be ashamed of.
"The Norse people," Katy said, "are the people of Scandinavia (or theNorthmen, as they were called in ancient times), and these stories are those that old people have told their children in Norway and Sweden for—oh! forhundreds of years. Many are about animals, and others—"
"Give us one about an animal," Tug interrupted.
Very well, here's one that tells why the bear has so short a tail:
One day the Bear met the Fox, who came slinking along with a string of fish he had stolen.'Whence did you get these?' asked the Bear.'Oh, my Lord Bruin, I've been out fishing, and caught them,' said the Fox.So the Bear had a mind to learn to fish too, and bade the Fox tell him how he was to set about it.'Oh, it's an easy craft for you,' said the Fox, 'and one soon learned. You've only to go upon the ice, and cut a hole, and stick your tail down into it; and so you must go on holding it there as long as you can. You're not to mind if your tail smarts a little; that's when the fish bite. The longer you hold it, the more fish you'll get; and then, all at once, out with it, with a cross pull sideways, and with a strong pull too.'Yes; the Bear did as the Fox said, and held his tail a long, long time down in the hole, until it was fast frozen in. Then he pulled it out with a cross pull, and it snapped short off. That's why Bruin goes about with a stumpy tail to this day.
One day the Bear met the Fox, who came slinking along with a string of fish he had stolen.
'Whence did you get these?' asked the Bear.
'Oh, my Lord Bruin, I've been out fishing, and caught them,' said the Fox.
So the Bear had a mind to learn to fish too, and bade the Fox tell him how he was to set about it.
'Oh, it's an easy craft for you,' said the Fox, 'and one soon learned. You've only to go upon the ice, and cut a hole, and stick your tail down into it; and so you must go on holding it there as long as you can. You're not to mind if your tail smarts a little; that's when the fish bite. The longer you hold it, the more fish you'll get; and then, all at once, out with it, with a cross pull sideways, and with a strong pull too.'
Yes; the Bear did as the Fox said, and held his tail a long, long time down in the hole, until it was fast frozen in. Then he pulled it out with a cross pull, and it snapped short off. That's why Bruin goes about with a stumpy tail to this day.
"LAY ON!"
"LAY ON!"
When this short and stirring tale of a tail had been concluded, the Captain's voice was heard.
"Now for bed!" he ordered, winding up his watch, whose golden hands pointed to nine o'clock.
Partially undressing, they tucked themselves into their quilts and blankets on the crackling straw, and silence followed. Sleep was slow to close the eyes of the younger ones, who were kept awake by their strange situation; and Rex, lying at Katy's feet, frequently raised his head as the roaring wind shrieked through the tall trees outside, or rattled a loose board in the roof with a strange noise.
The first one to awake next morning was Aleck, who looked at his watch by the glimmer of the coals, and was surprised to find it after eight o'clock, though only a gray light came through the little window of the cabin. Creeping out, he raked the embers together, laid on some fresh wood, and hung the kettle on the spike. Then he called his companions, who sat up and rubbed their eyes.
"Katy, you lie still till the boys go off. We'll bring you some water, and then you can have the house to yourself for a while. Get out of this, you fellows! Jim, bring a pail of water for the cook. Tug, you and I will go and see how the boat has stood the night."
Two minutes later they were gone. After Jim had brought the fresh water (he was slow about it, because hehad to rechop the well-hole) the girl sprang up to make herself neat, and was busy at breakfast when the boys pounded the door like a battering-ram with the axe-handle, "so as surely to be heard," and begged to know if they might come in.
"Good-morning!" she greeted them. "How is the weather?"
"Weather!" exclaimed Tug, spreading his hands before the fire, and working his ears out from underneath a huge red comforter just as I have seen a turtle slowly push his head beyond the folded skin of his neck. "Weather! It's the roughest day I ever saw. I don't believe old Zach himself could skate a rod against that wind."
(Zach was a six-foot-three lumberman in Monore, who was noted for his great strength.)
"Then how can we go on?" asked Katy, dropping eggshells into the coffee-pot.
"I'm afraid we can't," Aleck said, soberly; "at least, until this gale goes down. It is very, very cold, and I'm sure we are much better off here. Don't you all think so?"
"Youbet!" shouted Tug.
"Youbet!" Jim echoed.
"Then I must worry about dinner," said Katy, with a pretended groan which made them all laugh.
At breakfast came the promised chops. Then, whileKaty and Jim set the cabin into neat shape, the older lads went after more wood, and, having done this, walked out to the neighboring marsh and cut great armfuls of wild rice and rushes, with which to make their straw beds thicker and softer. This, and other things, took up the morning, and then all came in to help and hinder Katy while she got dinner.
When it had been set out they found half a boiled ham, potatoes, some fried onions ("arctic voyagers always need to eat onions to prevent scurvy, you know," Katy explained), and even bread and butter; but the last item represented almost the end of their only loaf.
In the afternoon the wind moderated, the clouds that had made it so dark in the morning cleared away, and the sun came out. Under the shelter of the long wharf and breakwater they walked out on the ice to the lighthouse, where they had been so often in midsummer; but now it was shut up, for there would be no use in burning a signal-light on the lake after the cold weather of the fall had put a stop to navigation, until spring recalled the idle vessels.
Supper was simple, but they had lots of fun over it, and then all set at work to help Aleck make straps of canvas to put over the shoulder and across the breast when they were hauling on the drag-rope. This contrivance saved chafing, and gave a better pull. Jim had pooh-poohed the takingof a sail-needle and some waxed twine along as unnecessary, but Aleck had persisted; and here was its service the very first day. Before the trip was through with, everybody wanted a hundred little articles they did not possess, worse than they would have missed this sail-needle had it not been brought.
THE FIRST DAY ON THE LAKE.
No howling gale disturbed their rest that night, and on the next morning, which was Friday, the third day out, breakfast had been disposed of long before the hour of rising on the previous day. What had they for breakfast? Hot and tender buckwheat cakes, with syrup made from maple sugar melted in a tin cup. The boiled ham and some crackers were put where they could be got at easily for luncheon.
The stowing of the loose goods in the boat took no longer than Katy required to get the mess kit packed after breakfast. As the day was fine, and the ice, as far as they could see to the southward, whither their course lay, was smooth and free from snow, the sled was loaded with cut wood and rushes, ready for making a fire, and Jim was appointed to drag it.
As they were leaving the cabin, after a last look to see that nothing had been forgotten, Katy spoke up:
"Why can't we take along some of this nice straw? It doesn't weigh anything to speak of."
"Oh, we can't," says Jim, crossly. "Girls are always trying to do things they know nothing about."
"May's well begin to rough it now as any time; can't expect a cabin and a straw mattress every night," was Tug's somewhat gruff remark as he went to the sledge.
"But," the girl persisted, rather piqued when she saw how her suggestion had been received, "it might be very nice to spread it on the floor of the tent. Seems to me you might take it."
She was talking to Aleck now, who, she knew by his face, opposed the plan; but he, seeing how much in earnest she was, went back, gathered up a big armful of the cleanest straw, and heaped it in the stern of the boat, while she brought a second bundle.
This matter settled, Aleck and Tug put their heads through the new harness, and were soon rushing along at a stirring pace, while Katy skated behind, holding on to the stern of the boat to steady it; Jim followed with his sled, and Rex galloped here and there as suited him.
The ice for miles together had been swept clean by the wind, and was like a vast, glaring sheet of plate-glass. Most of it was a deep, brilliant green. Here and there would be stretches of milky ice, and now and then great rounded patches would suddenly meet them, which were black or deep brown, and at first frightened them by making thembelieve a patch of open water suddenly yawned in their path. But, when they examined closely, they could see that this black ice was two or three feet thick, like all the rest on the open lake.
They were never at any time more than a mile or so from the edge of the great marshes which bordered the low margin of the lake, and at noon they knew they had skated twelve miles, by reaching a certain island standing just in front of the reedy shallows.
Thither they gladly turned for luncheon; skates were unbuckled, a big fire was built, the snow was cleared away, and the spare canvas spread down to sit upon, while Katy prepared to warm up the extra supply of coffee she had made in the morning for this purpose.
Not much talking had been done on the march; breath was too badly needed to be wasted in that way; but now "tongues were loosed," and a rattling conversation kept time with the crackle of the dead sticks on the fire.
"Captain," said Tug, "have you noticed how that ridge in the ice bends just ahead, and seems to stand across our course?"
"Yes, I have, and I fear it will be troublesome to cross. Jimkin, you're nimble; climb that cottonwood, and tell us what you can see."
"All right," said Jim, and was quickly in the tree-top.
"It looks like a rough, broken ridge, stretching clear to shore. I guess we'll have to climb over it. I can't see any break."
"Where do you think is the easiest place?"
"About straight ahead, where you see that highest point. Right beside it is a kind o' low spot, I think."
"Well, then," said the Captain, "we'll aim for that. Hurry up your lunch, Katy, and let's be off."
Half an hour later they arrived at the bad place.
"It must be ahummock," said Katy, "such as I have read about in Dr. Kane's book—only not so large, I suppose. He says that the ice-sheet, or floe, gets cracked and separated a little; then the two floes will come together again with such force that they lap over one another, or else grind together, and burst up edgewise along the seam."
"That's just the way this is; but, hummock or no hummock, it must be crossed," said Aleck.
"Mebbe I could find a better place," suggested Jim, "if I should go along a little way."
"Well, try it, Youngster. And, Tug, suppose you take a scout in the other direction."
Tug went off, but soon returned, reporting a worse instead of better appearance, and Aleck, who had climbed over, came back to say that the ridge was about twenty-five yards wide.
"How does it look?" asked Katy.
"Why, it looks as though a lot of big cakes of ice had been piled up on edge, and then frozen into that rough shape, or lack of shape. I should say the ridge is ten feet high in the middle, and on the other side it is a straight jump down for about six feet. But it's worse everywhere else. We must take our skates off the first thing."
This done, they stood up, ready to drag the boat as near to the hummock as possible. But it was hard pulling, for the slope was pretty steep and rough.
"Where's that Jim, I wonder?" cried Aleck. "I'll teach The Youngster not to run off the minute any work is to be done.Jim!"
But no boy answered the call, nor several others. Tug stood up on the boat, and Katy climbed to a high point of ice, but neither could see anything. Then they all became alarmed, fearing he might have fallen into one of those holes that here and there are found in the thickest ice, and always stay open. It is an easy matter to skate into one, but a very hard one to get out again. It was the thought of this that made Katy run in the direction whither Jim had started, but her brother called her back.
"Wait, Katy. We'll put on our skates. Probably The Youngster's hiding, and I'll box his ears when I catch him. This is no time for fooling."
With quick, nervous fingers they fastened their straps, and then rushed down along the foot of the hummock as though on a race, Tug carrying one of the drag-ropes. The tracks could be followed easily enough until they left the good ice and turned in towards the hummock, where they came to an end, which looked as though Jim might have taken off his skates. Here the boys hallooed, then climbed to the top of a great, upturned table of blue ice, and called again. But the most complete silence followed their words—such a silence as can never be known on land among the creaking trees or rustling grass; an absolute, painful stillness. Not even an echo came back.
At this they were puzzled and frightened, and Katy wanted to cry, but fought back her tears. They descended, and went slowly onward, now and then getting upon elevated points, and calling. At last they stopped, utterly at their wits' end where or how to search next, and Katy's tears rolled down her cheeks unchecked.
"Cheer up, Sis," said Aleck, and took her hand in his as they skated slowly onward; "cheer up! we'll try again on that big block ahead."
This block overlooked a broader part of the hummock, and wasn't far from land. They struggled over the jagged border, and hoisted Katy upon it to see what she could see.
"Nothing," was her report; "nothing but ice, and ice,and ice, and a gray edge of marsh. Oh, Jim! Jim! where are you?"
"Here—help me out."
Each looked at the other in amazement, for the voice, though faint, seemed right beside them.
"Here, down between the cakes—help me out."
The words came distinctly, and gave them a clew. Katy peeped over the farther edge of the block, and there she saw the little fellow's face peering up at her out of the greenish light of a sort of pit into which he had fallen. Two great cakes of ice had been thrown up side by side, leaving a space about two feet wide and ten feet deep between them. The blowing snow that filled most of the crevices of the hummock had here formed a bridge, which had let Jim through when he stepped upon it, never suspecting the chasm it concealed.
"Hurt?" asked Tug.
"Not a bit, but pretty well scared. I thought you fellows were never coming. I've been in here two hours."
"Two hours! Oho, that's good! Twenty minutes would about fill the bill. You ain't tired so quick of a warm, snug place like that, are you?"
"Just you try it, and see how you like its snugness. Drop me an end of that rope, will you?"
"Give him the rope's end, Tug; he deserves it in anotherway, but we haven't time to-day. Now, then—yo-heave-o!" and up came the lost member, not much the worse for his adventure.
Then began the difficult work of crossing the hummock. In front of the boat lay a steep slope of glassy ice, and beyond and above that a series of steps and jagged points, forming about such a plateau as a big heap of building-stone would make, only here the fragments were larger.
All four, going to the top of the first slope, pulled the boat upward until the forward runners were just balanced on the crest. Then a hook on one of the ropes came loose; four young people fell sprawling; and the boat dropped backward with a rush to the very bottom of the ridge, where it upset.
"Now," said Aleck, when they had set the boat upright again, and found nothing broken; "now let us take out all the loose stuff, and so lighten her as much as we can."
This was done.
"We three fellows," was the Captain's next order, "will drag her up again, and Katy must go behind with the boat-hook, and stick it into the ice behind the boat, to hold it, like a chock-block under a wagon wheel, whenever it shows any signs of slipping back. Now, everybody be careful."
The steady pulling, with Katy's pushing and guiding, gotthe front runners safely over the edge of the sloping side, and gave them a chance to rest. But when they tried to move it forward enough to bring the stern up, the boat couldn't be budged, because the ice in front was so full of ruts and ridges.
JIM'S REBELLION.
"I tell you what, boys," Tug cried, after a great effort, "there's no use trying any more till we have smoothed a road, and I think, Captain, you'd better set all hands at that."
"I'm afraid that is so. Jim, please go back and get the axe, the hatchet, and the shovel. Now, while Tug and I dig at this road, you and Jim, Katy, can bring some of the freight up here, or perhaps take it clear across, and so save time. The small sled will help you."
It was tedious labor all around, and the wind began to blow in a way they would have thought very cold had they not been so warm and busy with work. As fast as a rod or two of road was cleared, the four took hold and dragged the boat ahead. These slow advances used up so much time that when the plateau had been crossed, the sun, peering through dark clouds, was almost level with the horizon. It now remained to get down the sudden pitch and rough slope on the farther side. But this was a task of no small importance, and Aleck called a council on the subject.
CROSSING THE HUMMOCK.
CROSSING THE HUMMOCK.
"My lambs," he began (the funny word took the edge off the unfortunate look of affairs, as it was intended to do)—"my lambs, it is growing late, and it's doubtful if we can get this big boat down that pair of stairs before dark. Don't you think I'd better order Jim and Katy to pack up the small sled with tent and bedding and kitchen-stuff?"
"'Twon't hold it all!" interrupted Jim.
"Then, Youngster, you can come back after the bedding. Take the cooking things first, and you and Katy go back to the island where we lunched, and make a fire. Tug and I—eh, Tug?—will stay here and chop away till dark, and then we'll go back to camp with you when you come after the blankets, and help you carry the tent."
"Are you going to leave the boat here all night?" asked Jim, in alarm.
"Why, of course; what'll harm it? Now be off, and make a big fire."
So the younger ones departed, and by and by Jim returned for a second load. He found the two older boys cutting a sloping path through the little ice bluff on the farther side of the hummock, and pretty tired of it. They were not yet done—the shovel not being of much service in working the hard blue ice—but it was now getting too dark to do more, so they piled the snug bundles of blankets into Jim's sled box, and gave him the rope, while Tug and Aleck puttheir shoulders under opposite ends of the tent roll. Then together they all skated away through the thickening windy twilight, and over the ashy-gray plain of ice, towards where Katy's fire glowed like a red spark on the distant shore.
It was a weary but not at all disheartened party that lounged in the open door of the tent that night, while a big fire blazed in front, and supper was cooking. This was the first time the sail had been spread as a tent, and it answered the purpose nicely, giving plenty of room. The straw Katy had been so anxious about had to be left in the boat, so that they got no good of it. Jim chaffed his sister a good deal about this, and Tug rather encouraged him, thinking it was a fair chance for fun at Katy's expense; but when he saw that Katy really was feeling badly, not at Jim's teasing words, but for fear she had made the boys useless trouble, Aleck came to the rescue. Seizing The Youngster by the shoulder, he spun him round like a teetotum, and was going to box his ears, when Katy cried out, "Oh, don't!" and saved that young gentleman's skin for the present.
"Then I'll punish you in another way. Take your knife, go over there to the marsh"—it was perhaps a hundred yards away—"and cut as many rushes as you can carry."
The Youngster never moved.
"I don't want the rushes," said Katy, trying to keep the peace, but her brother paid no heed.
"Did you hear what I said?" he asked again of Jim.
"Yes, I did."
"Well, that was a Captain's Order, and I advise you to obey."
"Do it yourself!" shouted the angry Jim, sitting down by the fire.
Aleck looked at him an instant, saw his sulky, set lips, and then walked over to a willow bush near by. From the centre of this bush he cut a thriving switch, and carefully trimmed off all the twigs and crumpled leaves. It was as pliant and elastic as whalebone. It whistled through the air, when it was waved, like a wire or a thin lash. It would hug the skin it was laid upon, and wrap tightly around a boy's legs, and sting at the tip like a hornet. It wouldn't raise a welt upon the skin, as an iron rod or a rawhide might do, but it would hurt just as bad while it was touching you.
Jim knew all this, and it flashed through his brain, every bit of it, as he saw Aleck trim the switch.
"Better scoot, Youngster," Tug advised, with a grin that was meant kindly, but made Jim madder than ever.
"Please get the rushes," coaxed Katy.
But when Aleck came back the boy still sat there, defiant of orders.
"Now, James," he said, as he stood over him, "you have been ordered by your Captain to go and get some rushes.You refuse. You are insubordinate. I'll give you just one minute to make up your mind what you will do."
Jim glanced up, saw the determined face and stalwart form of his brother; saw Tug keeping quiet and showing no intention of interfering; saw the awful willow. He rose quickly from his seat, and darted away into the scrub alders and willows as hard as he could run, but not towards the rushes.
Aleck didn't follow him. "Never mind," he said. "Go on with your supper, Katy. That boy gets those rushes before he has any grub to eat or blankets to lie in, unless you both vote against it, and I don't think you will, for it was a reasonable order."
"Well, Captain," said Tug, "I think we might ease up on it a little. It was a little rough on The Youngster sending him alone in the dark to get the stuff. If you had sent me with him, I suppose he'd have gone fast enough. If you'll say so now, I allow he'll surrender and save his hide. For that matter, I don't mind getting 'em alone if you'll let the kid go. I was going to propose it myself just as you gave the order."
"That's very kind of you, Tug; but I couldn't allow you to get them alone. You may help if you want to."
"May I tell him so?" Katy asked, eagerly.
"Yes, if you can find him."
"I'll find him—look out for the bacon;" and the girl went off into the gloom and the bushes, calling, "Jim! Jim!"
It was a good while before she came back, and the boys, tired of waiting, had forked out the bacon, and were eating their meal, which was what the poets call "frugal," but immensely relished all the same.
Suddenly Katy and the culprit stalked out of the ring of shadows that encircled the fire, bearing huge bundles of yellow rushes.
"That ain't fair!" cried Tug. "You ought to have let me gone, Katy."
"Oh, I didn't mind, and I wanted Jim to hurry back."
"I didn't want her to carry none," said Jim, more eager about self-defense than grammar. "If I give up, I want to give up all over, and not half-way."
"Good for you, Youngster," Aleck shouted, leaping up. "Give us your hand!"
Thus peace was restored, and the boy sat down happily to his well-earned supper, while the older ones spread the crisp reed-straw. Finding there wasn't quite enough, they went off to the marshes and brought two more armfuls, which made a warm and springy couch for the whole party.
These "rushes" were not rushes, properly speaking, but the wild rice which grows so abundantly on the borders ofthe great lakes, and throughout the little ponds and shallow sheets of water that are dotted so thickly over Wisconsin and southern Minnesota. It is like a small bamboo jungle, for the close-crowding stiff reeds often stand ten feet or more above the water. They bear upon the upper part of their stalks a few ribbon-like leaves, and each reed carries a plume which in autumn contains the seeds, or the "rice."
The botanical name of the plant isZizania aquatica; and among it flourish not only the common white and yellow water-lilies, but that splendid one, theNelumbium luteum, which Western people call the lotus.
This rice formed an important part of the food of the Indians who lived where it grew. In and out of the marshes run narrow canals, kept open by the currents, and through these the Indian women would paddle their canoes, seeking the ripe heads, which they would cut off and take ashore to be threshed out in the wigwam, or else they would shake and rub out the rice into a basket as they went along. At home the rice would be crushed into a coarse flour in their stone mortars, then made into cakes baked on the surface of smooth stones heated in the coals.
The stalks, round, smooth, and straight, were of service to the Indians also. Out of them they made mats and thatching for their lodges, and they served as excellent arrow-shafts, a point of fire-hardened wood, of bone, or of flint having been fixed in the end.
JIM AND KATY BRINGING THE RUSHES TO CAMP.
JIM AND KATY BRINGING THE RUSHES TO CAMP.
In warm weather these broad, submerged marshes, undulating in color-waves—green in spring, golden-yellow in midsummer, and warm reddish-brown in October—as the breeze swept across the vast extent of pliant reeds, formed the home of a great variety of animals, whose numbers were almost unlimited. There, in the darkly stained water, lurked hosts of small shells and insects—dragon-flies, beetles, and aquatic bugs and flies, whose habits were always a matter for curiosity. Then, where insects and mollusks were so numerous, of course there were plenty of fishes, great and small, the little ones feeding on the bugs and snails, the larger on them, and some giants—like the big pike—on these again. Nor did this end the list. After the big fish came the muskrat; after the muskrat—in the old days, at least—sneaked the wolverine; after the wolverine crept the stealthy panther; and for the panther an Indian lay in wait.
The marshes were full of birds, too, in the bird-season—small, piping wrens; suspicious sparrows; ducks and rails and gallinules of many kinds and many voices; herons and cranes and hawks; coming and going with the seasons, making the yellow reeds populous with busy lives, and vocal with their merriment. Now, however, all was silent.
Our travellers would have preferred skating across themarshes rather than outside upon the windy lake, but it was reported that warm springs came out of the ooze in many parts of the rice morass, keeping the ice so weak (though not melting it quite away) as to make skating unsafe. This danger was not so great, perhaps, in a winter so unusually cold as this one was proving itself to be, as it had been shown to be in milder seasons; but they did not want to run risks.
"How noisy it will be all around this islet in three months from now!" Aleck remarked, as they were preparing for bed. "Then you will hardly be able to hear yourself speak for the frogs."
"Before there were any lighthouses on the lake," said Tug, "sailing was pretty much guesswork; but my father told me the sailors, when they approached the shore, used to know where they were by listening to the bull-frogs. The bulls would call out the names of their ports, you know: San—dúsk—y! To—l-é-e-e—do! Mon—róe! De—trói-i-i-i—it!"
SKATING BY COMPASS.
The next day was Sunday. Fortunately, the sacred day had found them in such a position that they could spend it quietly. Katy persuaded Jim and the two young men to listen while she read them some chapters from the little Testament she had carefully packed among her "necessary articles."
This, together with the work thatmustbe done, took up a good part of the morning, and the afternoon was spent in making a trip to the boat, looking the situation over carefully, and laying plans for a very early start the next day. Supper over, they soon crawled into bed, and woke at day break, ready for work, and all the better for their day of rest.
After a hasty breakfast camp was broken, and work was resumed at the hummock. All hands labored with such a will that long before noon they had let the boat down to the smooth white plain upon the other side; and though it got away from them at the last minute, and went spinning off on its own account, no harm was done.
The onward march was then resumed, and splendid headway made. At noon a short halt was called and gladly accepted, all lounging upon the straw and boxes in the boat, munching crackers and cheese, and drinking Katy's cold chocolate. The sun had been out all the morning, and the ice was not only a trifle soft, but frequently rough, which had made the skating and dragging a little harder work than before.
No land appeared ahead, but Aleck knew the name and position of a lighthouse just visible upon an island at the mouth of a river away off at their right. He therefore took out of his pocket a small map of the western end of the lake, that he had copied from a big chart, and began to study it. He found that it was about fifteen miles across the end of the lake to a certain cape on the southern shore, which lay beyond the great marshy bay into which emptied the river just mentioned. He took the direction of this cape from where they were at present, by compass, and made a note of it in his pocket-book. It was almost exactly southeast. Aleck reckoned on reaching so near there by sundown that the party could go ashore if very hard pushed by any misfortune or bad turn of the weather, though it was too long a march to make unless they were compelled.
"But supposing we find open water, and have to change our course?" asked Katy.
"Well, we shall know, at all events, that we mustn't go east of southeast, and must try to keep as close to that direction as possible. I don't like this sunshine and westerly breeze. I'd much rather the weather kept real cold."
"Why?" said Jim. "It's much nicer when it's warm."
"I'm afraid of snow and fogs, Youngster. Now let us be off."
No snow or fog came to bother them, however, and at sunset they were out of sight of any landmark, and travelling by the compass, like a ship at sea.
You may ask, How could they be sure they were following it truly, since they had no object, like a long bowsprit, to guide the eye in ranging their course into line with the needle point, as the steersman on a ship does when he glances across his binnacle?
This is the plan they took: The compass was a small one, but it was hung in a box so as always to stand level. It was, in fact, an old boat compass which Mr. Kincaid had had for many years. This was set exactly in the middle of the seat at the stern of the boat, where Katy still skated, with her hands resting upon the stern-board. Here she could keep her eye easily upon the face of the compass, and make a straight line from its pointer through the middle of the boat. When the compass point "southeast" and the stem-post of the yawl were in line, she knew they weregoing on a straight course. When these were out of line, she knew her team had swerved, and she called out "Right!" or "Left!" to bring them back to the true course, just as a quartermaster would order "Port!" and "Starboard!" to his helmsman.
The sun went down slowly at their right hands as they rushed along, and as Jim saw his shadow stretching taller and taller, he found it difficult to keep pace with the older lads. Noting this, the Captain ordered a halt, and put Jim into the boat as a passenger, tying his sled behind.
"Don't you want to ride also?" asked Tug of Katy, very gallantly.
Katy was tired, and one of her skate-straps chafed her instep a little, but she didn't propose to give up.
"Oh, no," she said, cheerily. "I have so much help by resting on the stern of the boat that I can go a long time yet before I give in. Besides, who would steer?"
So they rushed away again, the clink-clink of their strokes keeping perfect time on the smooth ice. All at once—it was about four o'clock in the afternoon now—a dark line appeared ahead, and in a few moments more they could plainly see open water across their path.
When they became sure of this they went more slowly, and in about ten minutes had approached as close as they dared to a wide space like a river, beyond which white icecould be seen again. Here all knew they must spend the night, for it would be foolish to attempt to cross before morning.
"Well," remarked Tug, as they came to a halt, "according to orders, it's my duty to take the axe and cut fuel; so I can loaf, for there's no wood to chop round here that I see;" and he pretended to search in every direction.
"Loaf? Not a bit of it," shouted Aleck, with a grin. "My order to you is, Unload that tent, and set it up on the ice! Jim will help you. I'll help Katy make a fire."
"I wish you would," said the girl. "I'm 'fraid I shouldn't make it go very well out here. I have never built a kitchen fire on ice."
"This is the best way."
Saying this, Aleck took two of the largest pieces of wood from Jim's sled, and laid them down a little way apart. Then he laid across them a platform of the next largest sticks, and on top of this arranged his kindling, ready to touch a match to.
"We won't set the fire going till we are quite ready for it, and—"
"But I'm cold," Jim complained.
"Well, Youngster, I've heard that the Indians never let their boys come near the lodge fire to get warm, but bid them run till they work the chill off. You'd bettermove livelier if you want to get warm, for we can't afford any more fire than is necessary for a short bit of cooking. Katy, what do you propose to have?"
"I thought I would make tea, boil potatoes, and bake some johnny-cake in my skillet. May I?"
"Oh, yes, but you must economize fuel."
With this warning, Aleck struck a match, and the little fire was soon blazing merrily in the "wooden stove," as Katy called it. Only one or two sticks had been burned clear through before the fire had done its work, and was put out in order to save every splinter of wood possible. They sat down in the shelter of the boat to eat their dinner, and enjoyed it very much, in spite of the cold, their loneliness, and the gathering darkness.
Meanwhile the tent had been set up. Over its icy floor were laid the thwarts taken out of the boat, the rudder, and two box covers, which nearly covered the whole space. On top of this was placed as much straw as could be spared, and upon the straw Aleck and Tug spread their blankets.
Dinner out of the way, the after-part of the boat was cleared out and re-arranged, until a level space was left. Here, upon a heap of straw, beds for the younger ones were arranged. Then the spare canvas was spread across like an awning, and was held up on an oar laid lengthwise. This made a snug cabin for Katy and the wearied Jim, whowere not long in creeping into it. Rex followed, and slept in the straw at their feet, which was good for them all.