But fur the present
we'd better busy our minds with the warnin's the wild fowl are
givin' us, though we're well fixed fur a house already. It's
cu'rus what good homes a handy man kin find in the wilderness."
The predictions of the wild fowl were true. A few days later
heavy clouds rolled up in the southwest, and the five watched
them, knowing what they would bring them. They spread to the
zenith and then to the other horizon, clothing the whole circle
of the earth. The great flakes began to drop down, slowly at
first, then faster. Soon all the trees were covered with white,
and everything else, too, except the dark surface of the lake,
which received the flakes into its bosom as they fell.
It snowed all that day and most of the next, until it lay about
two feet on the ground. After that it turned intensely cold, the
surface of the snow froze, and ice, nearly a foot thick, covered
the lake. It was not possible to travel under such circumstances
without artificial help, and now Tom Ross, who had once hunted in
the far North, came to their help. He showed them how to make
snowshoes, and, although all learned to use them, Henry, with his
great strength and peculiar skill, became by far the most expert.
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