199 ON THE EDGE OF THE WILDERNESS 
hour. Somehow, this was one of the happiest 
hours of the whole trip, and Brownie thought 
often about it as Pa Otter slowly, by easy stages, 
led the way back up the streams and finally over 
the divide and into the home country once more. 
Winter was coming on now, and the parents 
decided to sperid the cold season up in the pond 
at the brook head above the den. Long before 
Christmas the pond was frozen over, and 
Brownie, while he was under the ice, as he was 
much of the time, moved in a strange, dim world, 
’ especially after the snow came and covered the ice 
so thickly that little light could penetrate. Down 
there, it was like the long winter night of the Es- 
quimaux. The water, of course, was perfectly 
still but the mud on the bottom stirred now and 
then sluggishly as a turtle moved, or a muskrat 
went past. The fish were none too numerous, 
and Brownie and his family had sometimes to 
chase the muskrats for food, though they were a 
last resort. However, there were certain airholes 
in the ice, and both at the outlet and up the inlet 
the water remained open, so they could escape 
from the pond when the weather was good, and 
