154 



First they ate a little of their bread and 

 fish to keep up their spirits; then — for the 



ifidiis ntdt cross , .-, , ,, ■ , , r , ( 



p'n ffi0 <±toniv~ storm that was upon them might last lor 

 y* days — they set about preparing a shelter. 

 With a little search, whooping to each other 

 lest they stray away, they found a big dry 

 stub that some gale had snapped off a few 

 feet above the snow. While Mooka scurried 

 about, collecting birch bark and armfuls of 

 dry branches, Noel took off his snow-shoes 

 and began with one of them to shovel away 

 the snow in a semicircle around the base of 

 the stub. In a short half-hour he had a deep 

 hole there, with the snow banked up around 

 it to the height of his head. Next with his 

 knife he cut a lot of light poles and scrub 

 spruces and, sticking the butts in his snow- 

 bank, laid the tops, like the sticks of a wig- 





[ warn, firmly against the big stub. A few 



jp armfuls of spruce boughs shingled over this 



roof, and a few minutes' work shoveling 



snow thickly upon them to hold them in 



\;Mi§P^^ place and to make a warm covering; then 



-■•-sr-<s!.w3^^ a doorwav, or rather a narrow tunnel, just 



V ^^'-&JLP^ beyond the stub on the straight side of the 



s.y.vs-^ ■••••^•r- 



m ' 



I ..( 



