OUR RETURN JOURNEY 263 



the road for fifteen miles, up to a trapper's camp 

 which they would have ready for us, and that 

 they would take provisions with them. This was 

 good news, so we only bought enough food for two 

 days and started. Owing to the very soft snow 

 we only covered about twenty miles. We had also 

 to stop early to have time to prepare for the night, 

 which was in the usual camping style already des- 

 cribed in a previous chapter. The next day we 

 met our friends and relatives, and thenceforward 

 it was easy travelling. We were relieved of our 

 packs and guns and travelled light. We slept at 

 the trappers' camp and were off at daybreak over 

 a well beaten trail, arriving home at noon. Long 

 before we got there we met, one after another, 

 some friend or acquaintance coming to meet us. 

 Some had walked over twenty miles, the goodness 

 of which much affected us. 



Our reception on reaching home, I leave to the 

 imagination of the reader. There were no firing 

 of big guns and no fireworks that night. But 

 the welcome was none the less warm. 



Our whole trip occupied thirty-two days, dur- 

 ing which we met with a great deal of kindness 

 and sympathy and I tender my thanks again to 

 day to all who helped us in any way, no matter 

 however little it may have appeared to them, 

 under what were to us such trying circumstances. 



