XII 



THE WINTER WOODS 



,AF ! Olaf ! How did you know 

 we were coming this way? Nez 

 wrote, ' Never mind accepting, 

 but come,' and so we did ! " 

 cried Nat, before they had ex- 

 changed greetings witli their 

 old friend. " Beside, I thought 

 you lived too far off, — miles 

 farther away than Nez." 

 "A Fox came to the lumber 

 camp two nights ago and barked three times," replied 

 Olaf, laughing shyly as he glanced at the Doctor. 

 " The first bark said, ' Some one thinks of you.' The 

 second bark, ' Go to the stopping-place of the iron 

 horse two days hence.' The third bark said, 'You will 

 find there those you greatly love,' so here I am." 



" A Fox, how could he know about us ; though I've 

 heard they are verj- wise, and if he did know how could 

 he tell you ? " said Nat, very much puzzled. 



" Wood people understand the sign language of the 

 fourfoots," replied Olaf, " and to show that what this 

 Fox said was true, next morning when I drove my team 

 down to the Saw Mills, there I saw a yellow fire-letter 

 from the good Doctor, telling me the same thing." 



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