AND KAYAK 101 



the rafters above our heads. The drivers 

 looked at one another and laughed, and 

 laughed all the more when they saw my puzzled 

 face. 



But John, with his quiet smile, took me by 

 the arm when supper was done, and led me 

 out into the bright and frosty night. 



" Look on the roof," he said ; and I looked, 

 and the roof was sprinkled with sleeping dogs. 

 There was a great snowdrift piled against the 

 back wall, heaped up by the wind, and up 

 this drift the dogs had crawled to get near the 

 warmth of the chimney. The dog that lay 

 curled up beside the chimney-pipe had not 

 much peace ; he had had a hard fight for his 

 place, and now he was sleeping with a wary 

 eye half .open for possible disturbers of his 

 warmth. And as we sat around John's stove, 

 and the night grew colder and bedtime came 

 near, we could hear the scrambling and the 

 scraping of doggy claws upon the slippery 

 roof, as the sleepy sled-dogs over our heads 

 scuffled and squabbled for that snug spot by 

 the chimney. On those evenings, when the 

 house was shut for the night and the washing- 

 up was done, John's wife and the girls would 

 join us where we sat ; and then John brought 

 the Bible from the little bookshelf in the 

 corner, a well-thumbed strongly bound book 



