Chapter XIII.
SAVED FROM STARVATION.
When they arose next morning the air was much lighter, for it was no longer snowing. Breaking their way out after breakfast, Aleck and Tug climbed to the crest of the hummock above the house, where pretty soon they were joined by Katy and Jim, anxious to get a look abroad. There was not much satisfaction in this, though. On all sides stretched an unbroken area of white—a spotless expanse of new snow such as you never can see on land, for there was nothing to break the colorless monotony, except where the hummock stretched away right and left, half buried, and as white as the rest, save at a few points where crests of upturned ice-blocks stood above the drifts.
"There is a higher point a little way over there," said Aleck to Tug; "let's go across, and see if it will show us anything new."
"Mayn't we come?" asked Jim.
"No, Youngster, stay with Katy. It would be a useless journey for you, and we'll soon be back."
And off they went, floundering up to their waists much of the time.