“Will we be rained on again this afternoon?” Angry Wolf asked.
“Rain will not matter,” Little Eagle answered uneasily. “To me, the air has a feel as if Old-man-of-the-north’s cold wind was behind that cloud. It may be a long way to the next camping place. It would not be good to be on the prairie if there is much snow.”
Angry Wolf looked doubtfully around the prairie where they were resting.
“It couldn’t catch us in a much poorer place than this,” he said.
“That’s true,” Little Eagle agreed. “We’ll keep going.”
When they started again, Little Eagle wondered what caused his feeling of uneasiness. The air was warmer. There didn’t seem to be any reason for thinking that snow would fall. Even when the rain started, Little Eagle was not too uncomfortable. Later in the afternoon the rain felt colder. However, when the boys were chilled, they jumped from their horses and trotted beside them. As soon as they were warm, they remounted. There was still some daylight left when they reached a small, tree-lined stream.
“This is the place for us to camp,” Little Eagle called cheerfully.
The two boys made camp quickly. As soon as they had a fire going, they built a shelter. It was dark by the time they had the shelter finished. It was while they were eating that the drops of rain began to change to flakes of snow. In a short time the northwest wind was driving the snow with stinging force.
“It is fortunate that we found this place,” Little Eagle said. “We may have to stay here several days.”
The next morning it looked as though Little Eagle’s prediction would come true. The wind was still driving the snow before it. A drift had buried the boys’ fire and the pile of wood. They had to scrape the snow from the wood and work carefully to get dry shavings to start a new fire. Little Eagle noticed that Angry Wolf was restless and disturbed because of the delay.