“They would.” Great Bear nodded. “And yet, if we are delayed in the storm, they would save us much suffering.”
At last he made up his mind.
“We shall leave them,” he decided.
They gathered more wood and piled it near the lean-to. It took some time to find a large log to hold fire. Little Bear finally found one under a large tree. Together he and Grandfather dragged it to the fire and rolled it onto the coals.
“It will hold fire until we get back,” Great Bear stated.
Great Bear led the way from camp. He went directly west. As soon as the two of them stepped from behind the sheltering trees, the wind hit them with full fury. Snow pelted their faces so that they had to bend forward and walk with eyes squinted. The nearer they came to the base of the hills, the deeper the snow became. Their progress was painfully slow. They had not gone far through the deeper drifts when Great Bear turned his back to the wind and stopped to rest.
“I’ll take a turn at breaking trail,” Little Bear offered.
“All right,” Great Bear assented.
Little Bear stepped past his grandfather and began to plow through the loose snow. At every step the drifts were deeper. They hadn’t gone many paces when Little Bear had to stop to rest. Grandfather stepped past him and took the lead again. Thus, taking turns at breaking a path, they slowly moved forward. As they started up the slope, they found the drifts were not so deep. Halfway up the hill there was scarcely any snow at all.
