Silver Lake | Page 7

were merry. Then they resumed
their march, Roy beating the track manfully and Nelly following in his
footsteps.
In passing beneath a tall fir-tree Roy chanced to touch a twig. The
result was literally overwhelming, for in a moment he was almost
buried in snow, to the unutterable delight of his sister, who stood
screaming with laughter as the unfortunate boy struggled to disentomb
himself.
In those northern wilds, where snow falls frequently and in great
abundance, masses are constantly accumulating on the branches of
trees, particularly on the pines, on the broad flat branches of which
these masses attain to considerable size. A slight touch is generally
sufficient to bring these down, but, being soft, they never do any injury
worth mentioning.
When Roy had fairly emerged from the snow he joined his sister in the
laugh, but suddenly he stopped, and his face became very grave.
"What's the matter?" asked Nelly, with an anxious look.
"My snow-shoe's broken," said Roy.
There was greater cause for anxiety on account of this accident than the
reader is perhaps aware of. It may be easily understood that in a
country where the snow averages four feet in depth, no one can walk
half-a-mile without snow-shoes without being thoroughly exhausted;
on the other hand, a man can walk thirty or forty miles a day by means
of snow-shoes.
"Can't you mend it?" asked Nelly.
Roy, who had been carefully examining the damaged shoe, shook his
head.

"I've nothing here to do it with; besides, it's an awful smash. I must just
try to scramble home the best way I can. Come, it's not very far, we'll
only be a bit late for dinner."
The snow-shoe having been bandaged, after a fashion, with a
pocket-handkerchief, the little wanderers began to retrace their steps;
but this was now a matter of extreme difficulty, owing to the quantity
of snow which had fallen and almost obliterated the tracks. The broken
shoe, also, was constantly giving way, so that ere long the children
became bewildered as well as anxious, and soon lost the track of their
outward march altogether. To make matters worse, the wind began to
blow clouds of snow-drift into their faces, compelling them to seek the
denser parts of the forest for shelter.
They wandered on, however, in the belief that they were drawing
nearer home every step, and Roy, whose heart was stout and brave,
cheered up his sister's spirit so much that she began to feel quite
confident their troubles would soon be over.
Presently all their hopes were dashed to the ground by their suddenly
emerging upon an open space, close to the very spot where the
snow-mass had fallen on Roy's head. After the first feeling of alarm
and disappointment had subsided, Roy plucked up heart and
encouraged Nelly by pointing out to her that they had at all events
recovered their old track, which they would be very careful not to lose
sight of again.
Poor Nelly whimpered a little, partly from cold and hunger as well as
from disappointment, as she listened to her brother's words; then she
dried her eyes and said she was ready to begin again. So they set off
once more. But the difficulty of discerning the track, if great at first,
was greater now, because the falling and drifting snow had well-nigh
covered it up completely. In a very few minutes Roy stopped, and,
confessing that he had lost it again, proposed to return once more to
their starting point to try to recover it. Nelly agreed, for she was by this
time too much fatigued and alarmed to have any will of her own, and
was quite ready to do whatever she was told without question.

After wandering about for nearly an hour in this state of uncertainty,
Roy at last stopped, and, putting his arm round his sister's waist, said
that he had lost himself altogether! Poor Nelly, whose heart had been
gradually sinking, fairly broke down; she hid her face in her brother's
bosom, and wept.
"Come now, don't do that, dear Nell," said Roy, tenderly, "I'll tell you
what we shall do--we'll camp in the snow! We have often done it close
to the house, you know, for fun, so we'll do it now in earnest."
"But it's so dark and cold," sobbed Nelly, looking round with a shudder
into the dark recesses of the forest, which were by that time enshrouded
by the gathering shades of night; "and I'm so hungry too! Oh me! what
shall we do?"
"Now don't get so despairing," urged Roy, whose courage rose in
proportion as his sister's sank; "it's not such an awful business after all,
for father is sure to scour the woods in search of us, an' if we only get