“Do the men ever go?”
“What’d they go fer? Ter be torn ter pieces?”
“Say! You got any gum?”
The cook pointed to a canister full of the daintiest-looking lumps of pink transparency.
“I suppose you have all the venison you want?” said Will, sampling the gum.
“Jes’ comes up and asks ter be et!”
Taking a doughnut, Will went out to investigate the oxen, the logging-roads, and the long frozen lake upon which the logs were being hauled to be all afloat and ready with the breaking up of the ice in the spring.
The ice lay glittering. In less than no time Will had his skates on, and was out careering over the crystal glare, doing his fancy tricks, and speeding away from reach to reach among the islands with which the great lake was sprinkled.
It was daylight much longer out on the open ice than in the woody places. And exhilarated with the glow of his swift motion, Will did not think anything about time until he saw large snow-flakes dancing about him. When he turned, he at once noticed that what light there was was only that of a gray gloaming, and that a chill damp wind was blowing in his face with a snow-storm on its wings.