The Ice Queen Part 10

"I-t, _it_," says Jim, and carried off the honors.

Tired of this, they listened while Katy read from the precious book of Norwegian stories, and then chapter after chapter out of the little red Testament.

"'Twouldn't be a bad scheme for some raven to bring _us_ food," said Tug, thoughtfully. "I reckon Elisha's wilderness wasn't a worse one than this ice-plain."

"The Eskimos, Dr. Kane writes, eat the raven himself sometimes, in their snow-deserts, which Elisha wouldn't have done on any account, I suppose."

"No. That would have been like aesop's fable of killing the goose that laid the golden eggs."

"Yes, so it would," Katy responded; "but the Eskimos have lots of other birds to eat--auks and guillemots, and eider-ducks, and mollemokes."

"But they're on the sea, where those birds live in enormous flocks, like our wild pigeons up in the pine woods--millions of 'em!" Tug exclaimed, with outstretched arms. "No such a thing on our lake after the blackbirds leave the marshes."

"Except owls," interposed Jim; "and we can't eat them."

"I feel as though even an owl-stew wouldn't be bad about now," Aleck replied.

Nevertheless, when lunch-time came, both the big boys vowed they were not a bit hungry, and refused to eat. Katy took only a cracker, but Jim ate three crackers and the last bit of the cold ham, picking the bone so clean that, big as it was, Rex, who was frightfully hungry, could get little comfort out of it, though he gnawed at it nearly all the afternoon. Then Tug smashed it for him, and gave him another try, which he appreciated highly.

"Poor Rex!" said Katy, with a sigh. "Travellers get so badly off they have to kill and eat their dogs sometimes"--Rex stopped crunching, and looked up with a glance of alarm at this--"and if we should--"

"What a grand time Rex would have at his own bones!" interrupted Tug--a joke the utter absurdity of which wrinkled the faces that had become straight into hearty laughter. Towards evening a fire was built, which used the last of the sticks and one of the box-covers before the biscuits could be baked in the skillet, the ham fried, and tea made.

"I'm 'fraid it won't be long before I shall have to try the little stove," said Katy.

"I had no idea we were so near the end," Aleck muttered, under his breath.

The meal that evening was a very dull one, and if they did not go to sleep at once after they had gone to bed, certainly there was little fun-making among the weather-bound prisoners. Aleck said afterwards he thought he slept about an hour that night, and Katy was sure she didn't really get soundly asleep at all; but it is difficult to lie awake _all_ night, though your rest may be so broken that you think in the morning you have never once lost your knowledge of what was going on.

Chapter XIII.

SAVED FROM STARVATION.

When they arose next morning the air was much lighter, for it was no longer snowing. Breaking their way out after breakfast, Aleck and Tug climbed to the crest of the hummock above the house, where pretty soon they were joined by Katy and Jim, anxious to get a look abroad. There was not much satisfaction in this, though. On all sides stretched an unbroken area of white--a spotless expanse of new snow such as you never can see on land, for there was nothing to break the colorless monotony, except where the hummock stretched away right and left, half buried, and as white as the rest, save at a few points where crests of upturned ice-blocks stood above the drifts.

"There is a higher point a little way over there," said Aleck to Tug; "let's go across, and see if it will show us anything new."

"Mayn't we come?" asked Jim.

"No, Youngster, stay with Katy. It would be a useless journey for you, and we'll soon be back."

And off they went, floundering up to their waists much of the time.

"Jim," says Katy, "I see, just beyond the hut"--pointing in the direction opposite to that in which the lads had gone--"a s.p.a.ce under the edge of the hummock where the ice seems pretty clear. Understand?

And look! don't you see that long, dark line there? I wonder what it can be? Let us go and find out. We can get along easily enough after a few steps."

Jim strode ahead, and stamped down a path for Katy through the snow that lay between their house and the clear s.p.a.ce of ice that had been swept by the eddy under the hummock, until, a moment later, they were both running along upon a clean floor towards the object they had seen. Now they could make it out clearly; and at the first discovery Jim tossed his cap high in the air and gave a hurrah, in which the girl joined, wis.h.i.+ng she too had a cap to throw up. What do you suppose it was that had so excited and gladdened them? Can't you guess?

_A log of wood frozen into the ice!_

"Now we can have all the fire we want."

"And I can keep the coffee hot for the second cup."

Then they looked at one another, and laughed and clapped their hands again. Were two children ever before made so happy by the simple finding of a log?

Just then they heard Aleck's voice:

"Hallo-o-o! Where are you?"

Jim jumped up, and was about to shout back, but his sister threw her hand over his mouth.

"Stop, Jimkin! Let them look for us, and have the fun of being surprised by our great discovery."

So both kept quiet, and let the boys shout. By and by they saw their heads bobbing over the drift, and presently Tug came running towards them, with Aleck close behind.

"Why didn't you answer? Didn't you hear us? h.e.l.lo! Whoop--la! Wood, or I'm a Dutchman!" and all echoed his wild shout, and tried to imitate his dance, until the joy was b.u.mped out of them by sudden falls on the slippery ice.

It was a tree trunk of oak, that had been floating about, frozen into the ice, above the surface of which fully half of it was to be seen.

The stubs of the roots were towards them, while the upper end of the tree, which had been a large one, was lost in a drift more than forty feet distant.

"There is enough good wood here," said Aleck, "to keep us warm for two months, if we don't waste it; and we ought to be very thankful."

"Then let's have a fire right away!" Jim exclaimed.

"All right, Youngster," was the Captain's response. "Fetch the axe, and we'll soon light up."

When Jim had disappeared, Katy asked her brother what he had seen.

"Nothing," was the reply. "And it would just be impossible to move half a mile a day in this snow. It's one of the deepest falls I ever saw. We've got to stay here, for all I see, till it melts, or crusts over, or blows away, or something else happens."

"Well, we have plenty of fuel now."

"Yes, but we can't live on oak--though we might on acorns. But here comes Jimkin. Let's say no more about it now, Katy."

As the chips flew under Tug's blows, Katy gathered an armful, and hastened back to kindle a fire, while Jim and Aleck busied themselves in clearing a good path, and in hauling the hand-sled from under the boat, where it had been jammed into the drift out of the way. By the time it was ready Tug had chopped a sled-load of wood, and they hauled it to the house. It had been very awkward climbing over their wall of boxes, but they had been afraid to move any part of it, for fear of throwing down the snow which had banked it up and made the place so tight and warm. However, there was one box which must shortly be opened in order to get at more provisions; so it was carefully moved, and the wood piled in its place, leaving a low archway underneath, through which they could crawl on their hands and knees.

"That's just like an _igloo_," said Katy.

"What's an 'igloo'?"

"An Eskimo house made of frozen snow, in the shape of a dome, and entered by a low door, just like this one. By the way, are you getting hungry?"

"Yes; bring us something to eat."