Then Russ began making the snowshoes.
CHAPTER XVIII
ON SKATES
You have probably all seen pictures of regular snowshoes, even if you have not seen real snowshoes, so you know how much like big lawn-tennis rackets they look. Snowshoes are broad and flat, and fasten on outside of one's regular shoes, so a person can walk on the soft snow, or on the hard crust, without sinking down in.
The Indians used to make snowshoes by bending a frame of wood into almost the shape of a tennis racket—except it had no long handle—and then stretching pieces of the skins of animals across this.
"But I'm not going to make that kind," said Russ.
"What kind are you going to make?" asked Laddie as he watched his brother.
"Oh, mine's going to be easier than that."
Russ took a long, thin barrel stave, that was curved up a little on either end. To the middle of the stave he tacked some pieces of rope and string.