Towards evening the party approached the spot where Silver Lake had first burst upon the enraptured gaze of the wandering pair. As they drew near, Roy and Nelly hurried on in advance, and, mounting the fallen tree on which they had formerly rested, waved to the others to come on, and shouted for glee. And well might they shout, for the evening happened to be brighter and calmer, if possible, than the one on which they first saw the lake. The rolling clouds were whiter, too, and the waters looked more silvery than ever.
The exclamations of delight, and the looks of admiration with which the glorious scene was greeted by the hunters when they came up, gratified the hearts of Roy and Nelly very much.
"Oh, _how_ I wish mother was here to see it!" cried Nelly.
"Ain"t _that_ a place for a king to live in, daddy?" said Roy, enthusiastically.
"So "tis, lad, so "tis--leastwise it"s a goodish spot for a hunter. How say you, Slugs?"
Slugs smiled grimly, and nodded his head.
"Would the red man like to pitch his wigwam there?" said Robin, addressing the Black Swan.
"He has pitched his wigwam here before," replied the Black Swan softly.
"When he first took the White Swan home to be his mate, he came to hunt here."
"Och! is it the honeymoon ye spint here?" broke in Larry. "Faix, it"s a purty spot for courtin", and no mistake. Is that a beehive over there?"
he added, pointing across the lake.
"Why that"s our hut--our _palace_," cried Nell, with gleeful look.
"Then the sooner we get down to it, and have supper, the better,"
observed Walter, "for we"ll have to work hard to-morrow."
"Come along, then," cried Robin, "an" go you ahead, Roy; beat the track, and show us the way."
Roy accepted the position of honour. Nelly followed him, and the whole band marched off in single file along the sh.o.r.es of Silver Lake. They soon reached the hut, and here again Nelly found many interesting points to dilate upon. She poured her words into willing and sympathetic ears, so that she monopolised nearly all the talk during the time that Larry O"Dowd was preparing supper.
When that meal was being eaten the conversation became more general.
Plans were discussed as to the intended procedure on the morrow, and various courses of action fixed. After that, as a matter of course, the pipes came out, and while these were being smoked, only the talkative members of the party kept up the conversation at intervals. Roy and Nelly having exhausted all they had to say, began to feel desperately sleepy, and the latter, having laid her head on her father"s knee, fell sound asleep in that position. Soon the pipes were smoked out, the fire was replenished, the blankets unrolled; and in a very brief period of time the whole party was in a state of happy unconsciousness, with the exception of poor Wapaw, whose wounds made him rather restless, and the Black Swan, whose duty it was to take the first watch; for it was, deemed right to set a watch, lest by any chance the Indians should have followed the hunters" tracks, though this was not probable.
Next morning Robin aroused the sleepers somewhat abruptly by shooting a grey hen with his rifle from the tent door.
"There"s breakfast for you and me, Nelly, at any rate," remarked the hunter, as he went down to the lake to secure his bird.
"An" won"t there be the bones and feathers for the rest of us?" observed Larry, yawning, "so we won"t starve this day, anyhow."
In a few minutes every man was actively engaged in work of some sort or other. Robin and Walter prepared fishing-lines from some pieces of buckskin parchment; Black Swan and Slugs went out to cut wood for making sledges; Stiff repaired the snow-shoes of the party, or rather a.s.sisted Nelly in this operation; and Larry attended to the preparation of breakfast. Wapaw was the only one who lay still, it being thought better to make him rest, and get strong for the approaching journey.
During the course of the day the lines were tried, and a good number of fish caught. Slugs also went off in search of deer, and returned in the evening with a large stag on his broad shoulders. This raised the spirits of the party greatly, and they feasted that night, with much rejoicing, on venison, marrowbones, and broiled fish!
Thus they spent their time for several days. One party went regularly every morning to fish in the ice-holes; another party roamed the woods, and returned with grouse, or rabbits, and sometimes with deer; while some remained, part of the day at least, in the hut, mending snow-shoes and moccasins, and making other preparations.
In the midst of all this busy labour, the shoosking was not forgotten.
One day Robin said to his little daughter, at breakfast, that as they had got nearly enough of provisions for the journey they would take a holiday and go and have a shoosk. The proposal was hailed with delight, and the whole party went off with the new sledges, and spent the forenoon in sliding and tumbling down the hills like very children.
At last everything was ready for a start. The provisions were tightly fastened on the sledges, which were to be drawn by each of the men in turn. Snow-shoes were put on, guns and bows looked to and shouldered, and on a bright, frosty December morning the hunters left the hut, struck into the woods, and set out for Fort Enterprise.
At the top of the slope, beside the fallen tree, they stopped with one consent and gazed back; and there Nelly took her last sad look at Silver Lake, and sorrowfully said her last farewell.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
THE HAPPIEST MEETING OF ALL.
The snow was driving through the forests and over the plains of the North American wilderness; the wind was shrieking among the tree-tops, and whirling the drift in great clouds high up into the frosty air; and the sun was setting in a glow of fiery red, when, on the last day of the year, Robin Gore and his followers came to an abrupt halt, and, with one consent, admitted that "the thing was impossible."
"We can"t do it, boys," said Robin, resting his rifle against a tree; "so it"s o" no use to try. The Fort is good ten miles off, an" the children are dead beat--"
"No they ain"t," interrupted Roy, whose tone and aspect, however, proved that his father"s statement was true; "at least _I"m_ not beat yet--I"m game for two or three hours more."
"Well, lad, p"raps ye are, but Nelly ain"t; so we"ll camp here, an" take "em by surprise in the morning early."
Nelly, who had been carried on the backs of those who had broadest shoulders during the last dozen miles, smiled faintly when spoken to, and said she was "ve-y s"eepy!"
So they set to work in the usual style, and were soon comfortably seated in their snowy encampment.
Next morning before dawn Robin awoke them.
"Ho!" he cried, "get up, lads, look alive! A happy New Year to "ee all, young an" old, red an" white. Kiss me, Nell, dear--a shake o" yer paw, Roy. An" it"s a good New Year"s day, too, in more ways than one, praise the Almighty for that."
The whole party was astir immediately, and that feeling of kindly brotherhood which usually pervades the hearts of men on the first day of a new year, induced them to shake hands heartily all round.
"You"ll eat your New Year"s dinner at home, after all," said Walter to Nelly.
"Sure, an" it"s a happy "ooman yer mother"ll be this good day," said Larry, as he stirred up the embers of the fire, and blew them into a flame.
The kettle was boiled, and a good breakfast eaten, because, although it is usually the custom for hunters to start on their day"s journey, and accomplish a good many miles of it before breakfast, they had consideration for Roy and Nelly, both of whom were still suffering a little from the fatigue of the previous day. They hoped to be at Fort Enterprise in about four hours, and were anxious to arrive fresh.
The sun was rising when they reached the top of a ridge, whence they could obtain a distant view of the Fort.
"Here we are _at home_, Nelly," said Robin, stooping down to kiss his child on the forehead.
"Darling, _darling_ mother!" was all that poor Nelly could say, as she tried in vain to see the Fort though the tears which sprang to her eyes.
"Don"t you see it, Nell?" said Roy, pa.s.sing his arm round his sister"s waist.
"No, I don"t," cried Nelly, brushing the tears away; "oh, _do_ let us go on!"
Robin patted her on the had, and at once resumed the march.
That morning Mrs Gore rose from her bed about the saddest woman in the land. Her mind flew back to the last New Year"s day, when her children were lost to her, as she feared, for ever. The very fact that people are usually more jocose, and hearty, and happy, on the first day of the year, was sufficient to make her more sorrowful than usual; so she got up and sighed, and then, not being a woman of great self-restraint, she wept.
In a few minutes she dried her eyes, and took up her Bible, and, as she read its blessed pages, she felt comfort--such as the world can neither give nor take away--gradually stealing over her soul. When she met her kinsman and his friends at breakfast she was comparatively cheerful, and returned their hearty salutation with some show of a reciprocal spirit.
"Jeff," said Mrs Gore, with a slight sigh, "it"s a year, this day, since my two darlings were lost in the snow."