232 
THE RED MOUNTAIN OF ALASKA. 
something like a double-barbed arrow sticking up beside 
it ? That is the lake ; the arrow indicated, beyond a 
doubt, the lofty trees that mirrored their evergreen 
branches in its clear depths along the northern shore. 
Beautiful, beyond anything they had yet seen, was this 
broad, placid sheet of water, stretching away to the south 
for nearly twenty miles. But before morning the trav- 
ellers wished themselves a thousand leagues from its 
dimpling waves and bosky shores. 
Little Floss had complained quietly, during the day, of 
greater fatigue than usual. 
" It makes my back ache so," she said, " to climb over 
these trees ! " 
So the Indians made an armchair, as they had in the 
pass, and carried her for a while. But she soon tired of 
this, and asked to be allowed to walk again. 
Never mind," said Uncle Dick, cheerfully. We're 
going straight toward home now, little girl. In not many 
days we shall see salt water again, and you shall have 
your cosey old room at Sitka." 
Flossie did not reply, but a tear trembled at the end 
of her long brown lashes, as she thought of Sheldon 
and home. That night, in the camp beside the lake, 
she had an unmistakable chill, and the next morning 
was so feverish and weak that they did not dare to 
move on. 
During the day, however, and the two that followed, 
she gained rapidly ; so much so they started forward 
