Mike said no more, but, bending down his head, worked away manfully with might and main.
I did my best to keep up, but I may say that seldom have I endured such suffering. At last I felt that I could stand it no longer; so I proposed to my uncle that we should make for the shore, and there build a hut, light a fire, and wait till the storm was over.
He was, however, bent upon going on. “We should be half-frozen before we could get up a wigwam,” he answered.
Just then I heard a voice hailing us in gruff tones, and I guessed it was that of an Indian; but we had no reason to dread the Indians of these parts. As we looked about to see from whence it proceeded, I caught sight of the tops of two or three wigwams just peeping out from a cedar-bush at a little distance from the shore.
“Friends, come here!” exclaimed some one, and we observed an Indian making towards us; whereupon we turned round and skated up to him.
“Ah, friends! I know you,” he said. “You cannot face the storm, which will soon blow stronger still. Come to my wigwam, where you shall have shelter till it has passed by.”
As he spoke I recognised my old friend Kepenau, whom I had not seen since we had come to our present location. I had so grown, too, that he did not at first recognise me.
Having taken off our skates, we followed him to his camp, where he introduced us to several other Indians and their squaws, among whom were a number of children of all ages.
The thick cedar-bushes sheltered the spot completely from the wind, and the fire which burned in the centre afforded us a welcome warmth; for, in spite of the exercise we had gone through, our blood was chilled by the piercing snowstorm. The Indians were dressed partly in skins, and partly in garments made of blankets, received from the white men; most of the squaws wore a large blanket over their heads, forming a cloak in which they were shrouded. The wigwams were constructed of long thin poles, fastened at the top, and spread out in a conical form, the whole being covered thickly with slabs of birch-bark.
Our red-skinned hosts put us at once at our ease; and I asked Kepenau how he came to be in that part of the country.