slowly as the days warmed. At midday the 

 top layer of snow would melt and trickle 

 down through the chips; by night it would 

 freeze hard, gradually changing the snow 

 within to soft ice. When all the snow in 

 the woods was gone, that in the chip pile 

 remained, kept from melting by the thick 

 wooden blankets that covered it; and the 

 longest summer would hardly be sufficient 

 to melt it down to the bottom layer, which 

 represented the first fall of snow in the 

 previous autumn. 



When I found the spot it was early July. 

 The sun was blistering hot overhead, and the 

 flies and mosquitoes were out in myriads ; 

 but in Mooween's den two or three layers 

 of ice were as yet unmelted. The hole was 

 as cold as a refrigerator, and not a fly of any 

 kind would stay there for a single second. 



At the inner end of the den something 

 glimmered as my eyes grew accustomed to 

 the gloom, and I reached in my hand and 

 pulled the thing out It was a stone jug, 

 and I knew instantly what had held the 

 molasses that had been spilled on the camp 



