XII 



THE WINTER WOODS 





LAY ! Olaf I How did you know 

 we were coming this way? Nez 

 wrote, ' Never mind accepting, 

 but come,' and so we did ! " 

 cried Nat, before they had ex- 

 changed greetings with their 

 old friend. '' Beside, I thought 

 you lived too far off, — miles 

 farther away than Nez." 

 "A Fox came to the lumber 

 camp two nights ago and barked three times," replied 

 Olaf, laughing shyly as he glanced at the Doctor. 

 '' The first bark said, ' Some one thinks of you.' The 

 second bark, 'Go to the stopping-place of the iron 

 horse two days hence.' The third bark said, 'You will 

 find there those you greatly love,' so here I am." 



" A Fox, how could he know about us ; though I've 

 heard they are ver}- wise, and if he did know how could 

 he tell you ? " said Nat, very much puzzled. 



" AVood people luiderstand the sign language of the 

 fourfoots," replied Olaf, " and to show that what this 

 Fox said was true, next morning when I drove my team 

 down to the Saw Mills, there I saw a yellow fire-letter 

 from the good Doctor, telling me the same thing." 



155 



