"Hi! Hallo! I say, Nelly, what's all this?" There was good cause for
the tone of surprise in which Roy uttered these words when he awoke, for
the fireplace and the lower half of his own, as well as his sister's,
blanket were covered with at least half a foot of snow. It had found
its way in at the hole in the roof of the hut, and the wind had blown a
great deal through the crevices of the doorway, so that a snow-wreath
more than a foot high lay close to Nelly's elbow.
This was bad enough, but what made it worse was that a perfect hurricane
was blowing outside. Fortunately the hut was sheltered by the woods,
and by a high cliff on the windward side; but this cliff, although it
broke the force of the gale, occasioned an eddy which sent fearful gusts
and thick clouds of snow ever and anon full against the doorway.
"O Roy! what shall we do?" said Nelly, in an anxious tone.
"Don't know," said Roy, jumping up and tightening his belt; "you never
can know what's got to be done till you've took an observation o' what's
goin' on, as daddy used to say. Hallo! hold on. I say, if it goes on
like this it'll blow the hut down. Come, Nelly, don't whimper; it's
only a puff, after all, an' if it did capsize us, it wouldn't be the
first time we had a tumble in the snow. Seems to me that we're goin' to
have a stormy Sabbath, though. Rouse up, lass, and while you're
clearin' off the snow, I'll go get a bundle o' sticks, and light the
fire."
Roy stooped to pass under the low doorway, or, rather, hole of the hut,
and bending his head to the blast passed out; while Nelly, whose heart
was cheered by her brother's confident tone more than by his words, set
about shovelling away the snow-drift with great activity.
Presently Roy returned, staggering under a heavy load of firewood.
"Ho! Nell," he cried, flinging down the wood with a clatter, "just you
come an' see Silver Lake. Such a sight it is you never saw; but come
slick off--never mind your belt; just roll your blanket round you, over
head and ears--there," said he, assisting to fasten the rough garment,
and seizing his sister's hand, "hold on tight by me."
"Oh, _what_ a storm!" gasped the little girl, as she staggered out and
came within the full force of the gale.
It was indeed a storm, such as would have appalled the hearts of
youngsters less accustomed to the woods than were our hero and heroine.
But Roy and Nelly had been born and bred in the midst of stormy
backwoods' elements, and were not easily alarmed, chiefly because they
had become accustomed to estimate correctly the extent of most of the
dangers that menaced them from time to time. A gale of the fiercest
kind was blowing. In its passage it bent the trees until they groaned
and creaked again; it tore off the smaller twigs and whisked them up
into the air; it lifted the snow in masses out of the open spots in the
woods, and hurled them in cloud-like volumes everywhere; and it roared
and shrieked through the valleys and round the mountain tops as if a
thousand evil spirits were let loose upon the scene.
Silver Lake was still silvery in its aspect, for the white drift was
flying across it like the waves of a raging sea; but here, being
exposed, the turmoil was so tremendous that there was no distinguishing
between earth, lake, and sky. "Confusion, worse confounded" reigned
every where, or rather, appeared to reign; for, in point of fact, _there
is no confusion whatever_ in the works and ways of God. Common sense,
if unfallen, would tell us that. The Word reveals it, and science of
late years has added its testimony thereto.
Roy and Nelly very naturally came to the conclusion that things were in
a very disordered state indeed on that Sabbath morning, so they returned
to their hut, to spend the day as best they might.
Their first care was to kindle the fire and prepare breakfast. While
Nelly was engaged in this, Roy went out and cut several small trees,
with which he propped the hut all round to prevent it from being blown
down. But it was discovered, first, that the fire would hardly kindle,
and, second, that when it was kindled it filled the whole place with
smoke. By dint of perseverance, however, breakfast was cooked and
devoured, after which the fire was allowed to go out, as the smoke had
almost blinded them.
"Never mind, Nell, cheer up," said Roy, on concluding breakfast; "we'll
rig up a tent to keep the snow off us."
The snow, be it understood, had been falling into the fire, and, more or
less, upon themselves, through the hole in the roof; so they made a tent
inside the hut, by erecting two posts with a ridge-pole at a height of
three feet from the ground, over which they spread one of their
blankets. Under this tent they reclined with the other blankets spread
over them, and chatted comfortably during the greater part of that day.
Of course their talk was chiefly of home, and of the mother who had been
the sun and the joy of their existence up to that sad day when they were
lost in the snow, and naturally they conversed of the Bible, and the
hymns which their mother had made the chief objects of their
contemplation on the Sabbaths they had spent at Fort Enterprise.
Monday was as bad as Sunday in regard to weather, but Tuesday dawned
bright and calm, so that our wanderers were enabled to resume their
avocations. The snow-shoes were put in order, the sled was overhauled
and mended, and more fish were caught and hung up to dry. In the
evening Roy loaded his gun with ball, put on his snow-shoes, and sallied
forth alone to search for deer. He carried with him several small
pieces of line wherewith to make rabbit snares; for, the moment the snow
fell, innumerable tracks revealed the fact that there were thousands of
rabbits in that region. Nelly, meanwhile, busied herself in putting the
hut in order, and in repairing the mocassins which would be required for
the journey home.
Lest any reader should wonder where our heroine found materials for all
the mending and repairing referred to, we may remark that the Indians in
the wilderness were, and still are, supplied with needles, beads, cloth,
powder and shot, guns, axes, etcetera, etcetera, by the adventurous
fur-traders, who penetrate deep and far into the wilderness of North
America; and when Nelly and Roy ran away from their captors they took
care to carry with them an ample supply of such things as they might
require in their flight.
About half a mile from the hut Roy set several snares. He had often
helped his father in such work, and knew exactly how to do it.
Selecting a rabbit-track at a spot where it passed between two bushes,
he set his snare so that it presented a loop in the centre of the path.
This loop was fastened to the bough of a tree bent downwards, and so
arranged that it held fast to a root in the ground; when a rabbit should
endeavour to leap or force through it, he would necessarily pull away
the fastening that held it down, and the bough would spring up and lift
the hapless creature by the neck off the ground.
Having set half-a-dozen such snares, Roy continued his march in search
of deer-tracks. He was unsuccessful, but to his surprise he came
suddenly on the huge track of a bear! Being early in the season this
particular bruin had not yet settled himself into his winter quarters,
so Roy determined to make a trap for him. He had not much hope of
catching him, but resolved to try, and not to tell Nelly of his
discovery until he should see the result.
Against the face of a cliff he raised several huge stones so as to form
a sort of box, or cave, or hole, the front of which was open, the sides
being the stones referred to, and the back the cliff. Then he felled a
tree as thick as his waist, which stood close by, and so managed that it
fell near to his trap. By great exertions, and with the aid of a wooden
lever prepared on the spot, he rolled this tree--when denuded of its
branches--close to the mouth of the trap. Next he cut three small
pieces of stick in such a form that they made a trigger--something like
the figure 4--on which the tree might rest. On the top of this trigger
he raised the tree-stem, and on the end of the trigger, which projected
into the trap, he stuck a piece of dried fish, so that when the bear
should creep under the stem and touch the bait, it would disarrange the
trigger, set it off, and the heavy stem would fall on bruin's back. As
he knew, however, that bears were very strong, he cut several other
thick stems, and piled them on the first to give it additional weight.
All being ready, and the evening far advanced, he returned to the hut to
supper.