How Canada Was Won: A Tale of Wolfe and Quebec

by F. S. Brereton

"You'd have the hul howling lot of varmint round us in a jiffy," growled Jim, as he watched the man lay the wood in the grate. "Reckon thet fire'll have to get started when it snows hard, and after that, when it's light, nothing but chips as dry as a bone'll have to get throwed on it. Even then, thar ain't any sayin' as a redskin wouldn't spot the smoke."

"With care, it will be well," said Silver Fox, as Jim turned to him as if to ask for his decision. "See, my brother, behind the smoke there will be the sky, and it is clear and white. If dry chips are used there will be a little white smoke perhaps, but none that is dark. We can keep fire within the fort once it has been set alight. Truly, you pale faces think of strange things. Where my brothers and I would have set our wigwams in the thickest forest, there seeking protection from the snow and keen winter winds, you come hither and burrow like foxes. You make one big wigwam where we should have seen no opportunity of doing so, and as I look on and smoke you erect a fort which is strong against attack, which is a watch-tower from which you can see every foot of the lakes, and which also is a comfortable lair in which the firelight can be seen, and where we may huddle about the warmth, and smoke and think. Truly there is no understanding you men who have come so strangely from over the water."

The tall Indian brave wrapped his blanket still closer about his figure, and gazed out at the huge panorama stretched before him. There lay the glistening surface of the two lakes, now clad with ice from end to end, and fringed all about by continuous forest, which grew up to the banks and cast there a deep shadow, which looked black against the white of the ice. And away in the distance the faint reflection from another long expanse of frozen water, Lake Champlain, called after that famous Frenchman who had done so much for New France, and who had founded Quebec. It, too, was clad in a garment of white, snow hanging to the trees, and in the dull wintry green of the pines, which grew thickly there. For background there was the blue haze of the Adirondacks and the Green Mountains, now the favourite haunt of thousands of holiday-seeking Americans. And still farther to the north, buried in the dull horizon and behind it, lay the Richelieu river, with its few forts, and its seigneuries, where the gentilhommes of this new colony, the lately-constructed noblesse, sat in their palisaded houses watching as their habitants cooked their food or went a-hunting. Then it was that these noblesse might don doe-skin leggings, shirt, and moccasins, and clad in the thick fur coats, with hoods, worn by the Indians of Canada, and with thick mittens slung about their necks, might venture into the forest with the habitants and enjoy all the excitement of the chase. Yes, they could hunt and fight, but work, never! Each one was the seigneur, and the lords of Old and New France never blistered their palms nor dirtied their fingers.

"We're almost ready," said Steve, as he stood beside the tall Silver Fox, staring out at the scene below. "What we want now is a wall of snow here in front. How are we to set about building it?"

"It's as easy as fallin'," answered Jim at once. "Look up there, Cap'n."

He pointed to the leaden sky above, and held his hand up for a minute.

"Wind's from the north, Cap'n," he said, "and it's goin' to snow. To-morrow things'll be properly covered, and ef we jest build a wall of branches at the face of this nest, waal, it'll be covered afore the mornin'. Reckon this place'll be lookin' jest natural when the light comes again."

"Then set the men to work," cried Steve, hurrying off to where a pile of branches and small tree trunks had been dragged. "It will be dark in an hour, and if it is going to snow, as I can well believe, why, we may just as well make all snug beforehand."

Less than an hour later there was an erection of boughs and branches against the face of the hollow, to which the finishing touches were given as the darkness fell. By then snowflakes were silently flitting to the ground, powdering the rough roof above the hollow, and resting upon the caps and shoulders of the trappers. A little later it was dark, and through the flakes the distant twinkle of a dozen or more lights could be seen.