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[Illustration: "JIM GOT IN AT LEAST ONE GOOD BLOW."]
THE ICE QUEEN
by
ERNEST INGERSOLL
Author of
"Friends Worth Knowing," "Knocking Round the Rockies," etc.
Illustrated
New York
Harper & Brothers, Franklin Square
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1884, by
Harper & Brothers,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
All rights reserved.
CONTENTS.
CHAP.
I. THROWN UPON THEIR OWN RESOURCES
II. "THE YOUNGSTER'S" PLAN
III. FITTING OUT THE "RED ERIK"
IV. MAKING A START
V. COMFORT IN A LOG CABIN
VI. NORSE TALES
VII. THE FIRST DAY ON THE LAKE
VIII. JIM'S REBELLION
IX. SKATING BY COMPASS
X. AN UGLY FERRIAGE
XI. CAMPING AGAINST AN ICE WALL
XII. SNOWED UNDER
XIII. SAVED FROM STARVATION
XIV. THE ARCTIC VISITORS
XV. CHRISTMAS BIRD-CATCHING
XVI. HOW TUG MADE "TWITCH-UPS"
XVII. THE BREAKING UP OF THE ICE
XVIII. RESCUING THE WANDERERS
XIX. ADRIFT ON AN ICE RAFT
XX. A NIGHT IN AN OPEN BOAT
XXI. THE ESCAPE TO THE SHORE
XXII. REX FIGHTS UNKNOWN ENEMIES
XXIII. EXPLORING THE ISLAND
XXIV. THE WILD DOGS AGAIN
XXV. THE PERILS OF A MIDNIGHT SEARCH
XXVI. FINDING SNOW-BIRDS AND LOSING THE CAPTAIN
XXVII. ANOTHER ENCOUNTER WITH THE WILD DOGS
XXVIII. THE ACCIDENT EXPLAINED
XXIX. DECIDING UPON A NEW MOVE
XXX. KATY TAMES THE WILD DOGS
XXXI. ABANDONING THE ISLAND
XXXII. AN ASTONISHED FARMER
XXXIII. THE "TIMES" CORRESPONDENT
XXXIV. A HAPPY CONCLUSION
ILLUSTRATIONS.
"JIM GOT IN AT LEAST ONE GOOD BLOW"
DISCUSSING THE PLAN
"A MOMENT LATER THEY WERE OFF"
SUPPER IN THE LOG CABIN
"LAY ON!"
CROSSING THE HUMMOCK
JIM AND KATY BRINGING THE RUSHES TO CAMP
"THE LITTLE FIRE WAS SOON BLAZING MERRILY"
CAMPING AGAINST AN ICE WALL
"A SHARP REPORT WAS HEARD"
KATY TRAPPING THE SNOW-BUNTINGS
SETTING THE NEW TRAPS
"REX STRUCK OUT AND SWAM ACROSS"
"THEY WERE ABLE TO DRAG HIS LIFELESS FORM OUT UPON THE ICE"
"TRY TO STEADY HER"
THE CABIN ON THE ISLAND
ATTACKED BY THE DOGS
"DON'T CRY, KATY!"
"'IS HE DEAD?' ASKED JIM"
REPAIRING THE OLD SCOW
"'WA'AL, I DECLARE!'"
THE ICE QUEEN.
Chapter I.
THROWN UPON THEIR OWN RESOURCES.
The early dusk of a December day was fast changing into darkness as
three of the young people with whose adventures this story is
concerned trudged briskly homeward.
The day was a bright one, and Aleck, the oldest, who was a skilled
workman in the brass foundry, although scarcely eighteen years of age,
had given himself a half-holiday in order to take Kate and The
Youngster on a long skating expedition down to the lighthouse. Kate
was his sister, two years younger than he, and The Youngster was a
brother whose twelfth birthday this was.
The little fellow never had had so much fun in one afternoon, he
thought, and maintained stoutly that he scarcely felt tired at all.
The ice had been in splendid condition, the day calm, but cloudy, so
that their eyes had not ached, and they had been able to go far out
upon the solidly frozen surface of the lake.
"How far do you think we have skated to-day, Aleck?" asked The
Youngster.
"It's four miles from the lower bridge to the lighthouse," spoke up
Kate, before Aleck could reply, "and four back. That makes eight
miles, to begin with."
"Yes," said Aleck, "and on top of that you must put--let me see--I
should think, counting all our twists and turns, fully ten miles more.
We were almost abreast of Stony Point when we were farthest out, and
they say that's five miles long."
"Altogether, then, we skated about eighteen miles."
"Right, my boy; your arithmetic is your strong point."
"Well, _I_ should say his feet were his strong point to-day," Kate
exclaimed, in admiration of her brother's hardihood.
"It wasn't a bad day's work for a _girl_ I know of, either," remarked
Aleck, as he took the key from his pocket and opened the door of their
house, which was soon bright with lamplight and a crackling fire of
oak and hickory.
The house these three dwelt in was a small cottage in an obscure
street of the village, but it was warm and tight. Kate was
housekeeper, and The Youngster--whose real name was James, contracted
first into Jim, and then into Jimkin--was man-of-all-work, and
maid-of-all-work too, sometimes, when Kate needed his help.
While these two are getting tea, and Aleck is carefully wiping the
skates and putting them away where no rust can have a chance at the
blades, or mice gnaw the straps, let me tell you a few things about
the family.
Jim could remember his father only vaguely, but Kate and Aleck could
tell us all about him. His name was Kincaid, and he was a
master-builder of houses. He had bought and fitted up the cottage, and
had put savings in the bank, though Mrs. Kincaid was sick much of the
time, so that money was spent that would have been laid by "for a
rainy day" if she had been strong and well.
Unfortunately, the rain came sooner than any one thought for. One day,
about five years before the beginning of our little history, papa was
brought home hurt by falling from a scaffold at the top of a house. He
was not dead, and all thought he would be well again in a few weeks at
most; but instead he grew slowly worse, and after a time died.
Then the poor mother, always weak, did the best she could, and Kate
tried to help her, while Aleck stopped his school-going, and went to
work in the brass foundry. At first, though, he could earn but a
little, and Mr. Kincaid's savings slowly melted away until almost
nothing was left. Then the tired and desolate mother, never strong,
bade her children that long farewell that seems so terribly hopeless
to all of us when we are young, and the three "mitherless bairns" were
thrown upon their own resources.
The question arose as to what they should do. Jim was now eight years
old, and going to school. Kate had not neglected to do some studying,
and a great deal of reading, too, though she had always been so busy;
and a few weeks before her mother's death she had begun to study
regularly with a lady who lived near, whom Katy repaid by picking
various small fruits as they matured in the lady's large garden.
Aleck, as I have said, was working steadily, and getting enough wages
to keep them all in fair comfort, since they owned the house and
enough garden to give them plenty of vegetables. So, after talking the
prospect over, they decided to stay in their little house and live
together. A letter was written to Uncle Andrew, in Cleveland, who had
offered Kate and Jimmy a home, telling him they would try it alone a
while before burdening any of their friends.
This decision had been made almost four years before my story opens,
and it had not been regretted. They had even saved some money, but the
larger part of this had been spent in repairing the house, and in
fitting up a new boat for Jim and one of his friends, who thought they
knew a way to make a little money in the summer vacation if they had a
good boat. This boat had been completed only in time to prove how
good it was, before the winter had closed the river with ice at an
unusually early date, and now the pretty craft was safely stored in a
warehouse at the schooner-landing, a mile below the town.
All slept very soundly after their skating holiday--even Rex, the
great Newfoundland dog, who was a member of the family by no means to
be overlooked; but their ears were not stopped so tight that the
clangor of the church bells about midnight failed to arouse them with
its dreadful alarm of fire. Hastening to an upper window, one glance
at the blaze-reddened heavens showed our friends that the group of
factories in the southern part of the town was burning, and one of
these was the brass foundry where Aleck worked.
Aleck hurried away, and they did not see him until after sunrise, when
he came home tired, wet, and soot-blackened. The whole shop had burned
to the ground, he reported, and it was only by great risk and exertion
that he had been able to rescue his father's precious chest of tools.
"I didn't think," said the young man, as he sat wearily down to Katy's
hot coffee, "that my job would be so short when McAbee told me
yesterday I could work there 'as long as the foundry lasted.'"
During that day and the next Aleck tried every possible chance of
employment in the village, but found nothing; and by the time evening
came he had made up his mind that no regular employment equal to his
old place was to be had there for months to come.
There was no doubt about it. The time had arrived when they must avail
themselves of Uncle Andrew's kindness, and seek in his hospitable
house at least a temporary home.