o* 



, Noel's keen eyes, sweeping the plain and the 

 „ .. m . ^ edges of the distant woods, never noticed it. 



irdiisLudi cross A , . -, i • i i 1 1 j 



fn ffi/i <*nnur vagrant wind, which had been wandering 

 jy and moaning all morning as if lost, seemed 

 to stir the snow and settle to rest again. 



But now, where the plain seemed most empty 

 and lifeless, seven great white wolves crouched 

 down in the snow in a little hollow, their paws 

 extended, their hind legs bent like powerful 

 springs beneath them, their heads raised cau- 

 tiously so that only their ears and eyes showed 

 above the rim of the little hollow where they 

 hid. So they lay, tense, alert, ready, watching 

 with eager, inquisitive eyes the two children 

 drawing steadily nearer, the only sign of life 

 in the whole wide, desolate landscape. 



Follow the back trail of the snow-shoes 

 now, while the wolves are waiting, and it 

 leads you over the great barren into the 

 gloomy spruce woods ; beyond that it crosses 

 two more barrens and stretches of intervening 

 forest; then up a great hill and down into a 

 valley, where the lodge lay hidden, buried 

 deep under Newfoundland snows. 



