"Do you know I have a very strange feeling about my heels--or rather a want of feeling," said Hamilton, smiling dubiously.
"A want of feeling! what do you mean?" cried the accountant, stopping suddenly and confronting his young friend.
"Oh, I daresay it"s nothing," he exclaimed, looking as if ashamed of having spoken of it; "only I feel exactly as if both my heels were cut off, and I were walking on tiptoe!"
"Say you so? then right about wheel. Your heels are frozen, man, and you"ll lose them if you don"t look sharp."
"Frozen!" cried Hamilton, with a look of incredulity.
"Ay, frozen; and it"s lucky you told me. I"ve a place up in the woods here, which I call my winter camp, where we can get you put to rights.
But step out; the longer we are about it the worse for you."
Harry Somerville was at first disposed to think that the accountant jested, but seeing that he turned his back towards his traps, and made for the nearest point of the thick woods with a stride that betokened thorough sincerity, he became anxious too, and followed as fast as possible.
The place to which the accountant led his young friends was a group of fir trees which grew on a little knoll, that rose a few feet above the surrounding level country. At the foot of this hillock a small rivulet or burn ran in summer, but the only evidence of its presence now was the absence of willow bushes all along its covered narrow bed. A level tract was thus formed by nature, free from all underwood, and running inland about the distance of a mile, where it was lost in the swamp whence the stream issued. The wooded knoll or hillock lay at the mouth of this brook, and being the only elevated spot in the neighbourhood, besides having the largest trees growing on it, had been selected by the accountant as a convenient place for "camping out" on, when he visited his traps in winter, and happened to be either too late or disinclined to return home. Moreover, the spreading fir branches afforded an excellent shelter alike from wind and snow in the centre of the clump, while from the margin was obtained a partial view of the river and the sea beyond. Indeed, from this look-out there was a very fine prospect on clear winter nights of the white landscape, enlivened occasionally by groups of arctic foxes, which might be seen scampering about in sport, and gambolling among the hummocks of ice like young kittens.
"Now we shall turn up here," said the accountant, as he walked a short way up the brook before mentioned, and halted in front of what appeared to be an impenetrable ma.s.s of bushes.
"We shall have to cut our way, then," said Harry, looking to the right and left, in the vain hope of discovering a place where, the bushes being less dense, they might effect an entrance into the knoll or grove.
"Not so. I have taken care to make a pa.s.sage into my winter camp, although it was only a whim, after all, to make a concealed entrance, seeing that no one ever pa.s.ses this way except wolves and foxes, whose noses render the use of their eyes in most cases unnecessary."
So saying, the accountant turned aside a thick branch, and disclosed a narrow track, into which he entered, followed by his two companions.
A few minutes brought them to the centre of the knoll. Here they found a clear s.p.a.ce of about twenty feet in diameter, around which the trees circled so thickly that in daylight nothing could be seen but tree-stems as far as the eye could penetrate, while overhead the broad, flat branches of the firs, with their evergreen verdure, spread out and interlaced so thickly that very little light penetrated into the s.p.a.ce below. Of course at night, even in moonlight, the place was pitch dark.
Into this retreat the accountant led his companions, and bidding them stand still for a minute lest they should tumble into the fireplace, he proceeded to strike a light.
Those who have never travelled in the wild parts of this world can form but a faint conception of the extraordinary and sudden change that is produced, not only in the scene, but in the mind of the beholder, when a blazing fire is lighted in a dark night. Before the fire is kindled, and you stand, perhaps (as Harry and his friend did on the present occasion) shivering in the cold, the heart sinks, and sad, gloomy thoughts arise, while your eye endeavours to pierce the thick darkness, which, if it succeed in doing so, only adds to the effect by disclosing the pallid snow, the cold, chilling beams of the moon, the white vistas of savage scenery, the awe-inspiring solitudes that tell of your isolated condition, or stir up sad memories of other and far-distant scenes. But the moment the first spark of fire sends a fitful gleam of light upwards, these thoughts and feelings take wing and vanish. The indistinct scenery is rendered utterly invisible by the red light, which attracts and rivets the eye as if by a species of fascination. The deep shadows of the woods immediately around you grow deeper and blacker as the flames leap and sparkle upwards, causing the stems of the surrounding trees, and the foliage of the overhanging branches, to stand out in bold relief, bathed in a ruddy glow, which converts the forest chamber into a snug, _home-like_ place, and fills the mind with agreeable, _home-like_ feelings and meditations. It seems as if the spirit, in the one case, were set loose and etherealised to enable it to spread itself over the plains of cold, cheerless, illimitable s.p.a.ce, and left to dwell upon objects too wide to grasp, too indistinct to comprehend; while, in the other, it is recalled and concentrated upon matters circ.u.mscribed and congenial, things of which it has long been cognisant, and which it can appreciate and enjoy without the effort of a thought.
Some such thoughts and feelings pa.s.sed rapidly through the minds of Harry and Hamilton while the accountant struck a light and kindled a roaring fire of logs, which he had cut and arranged there on a previous occasion. In the middle of the s.p.a.ce thus brilliantly illuminated, the snow had been cleared away till the moss was uncovered, thus leaving a hole of about ten feet in diameter. As the snow was quite four feet deep, the hole was surrounded with a pure white wall, whose height was further increased by the ma.s.ses thrown out in the process of digging to nearly six feet. At one end of this s.p.a.ce was the large fire which had just been kindled, and which, owing to the intense cold, only melted a very little of the snow in its immediate neighbourhood. At the other end lay a ma.s.s of flat pine branches, which were piled up so thickly as to form a pleasant elastic couch, the upper end being slightly raised so as to form a kind of bolster, while the lower extended almost into the fire. Indeed, the branches at the extremity were burnt quite brown, and some of them charred. Beside the bolster lay a small wooden box, a round tin kettle, an iron tea-kettle, two tin mugs, a hatchet, and a large bundle tied up in a green blanket. There were thus, as it were, two apartments, one within the other--namely, the outer one, whose walls were formed of tree-stems and thick darkness, and the ceiling of green boughs; and then the inner one, with walls of snow, that sparkled in the firelight as if set with precious stones, and a carpet of evergreen branches.
Within this latter our three friends were soon actively employed. Poor Hamilton"s moccasins were speedily removed, and his friends, going down on their knees, began to rub his feet with a degree of energy that induced him to beg for mercy.
"Mercy!" exclaimed the accountant, without pausing for an instant; "faith, it"s little mercy there would be in stopping just now.--Rub away, Harry. Don"t give in. They"re coming right at last."
After a very severe rubbing, the heels began to show symptoms of returning vitality. They were then wrapped up in the folds of a thick blanket, and held sufficiently near to the fire to prevent any chance of the frost getting at them again.
"Now, my boy," said the accountant, as he sat down to enjoy a pipe and rest himself on a blanket, which, along with the one wrapped round Hamilton"s feet, had been extracted from the green bundle before mentioned--"now, my boy, you"ll have to enjoy yourself here as you best can for an hour or two, while Harry and I visit the traps. Would you like supper before we go, or shall we have it on our return?"
"Oh, I"ll wait for it, by all means, till you return. I don"t feel a bit hungry just now, and it will be much more cheerful to have it after all your work is over. Besides, I feel my feet too painful to enjoy it just now."
"My poor fellow," said Harry, whose heart smote him for having been disposed at first to treat the thing lightly, "I"m really sorry for you.
Would you not like me to stay with you?"
"By no means," replied Hamilton quickly. "You can do nothing more for me, Harry; and I should be very sorry if you missed seeing the traps."
"Oh, never mind the traps. I"ve seen traps, and set them too, fifty times before now. I"ll stop with you, old boy, I will," said Harry doggedly, while he made arrangements to settle down for the evening.
"Well, if _you_ won"t go, I will," said Hamilton coolly, as he unwound the blanket from his feet and began to pull on his socks.
"Bravo, my lad!" exclaimed the accountant, patting him approvingly on the back; "I didn"t think you had half so much pluck in you. But it won"t do, old fellow. You"re in _my_ castle just now, and must obey orders. You couldn"t walk half a mile for your life; so just be pleased to pull off your socks again. Besides, I want Harry to help me to carry up my foxes, if there are any;--so get ready, sirrah!"
"Ay, ay, captain," cried Harry with a laugh, while he sprang up and put on his snow-shoes.
"You needn"t bring your gun," said the accountant, shaking the ashes from his pipe as he prepared to depart, "but you may as well shove that axe into your belt; you may want it--Now, mind, don"t roast your feet,"
he added, turning to Hamilton.
"Adieu!" cried Harry, with a nod and a smile, as he turned to go. "Take care the bears don"t find you out."
"No fear. Good-bye, Harry," replied Hamilton, as his two friends disappeared in the wood and left him to his solitary meditations.
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
SHOWS HOW THE ACCOUNTANT AND HARRY SET THEIR TRAPS AND WHAT CAME OF IT.
The moon was still up, and the sky less overcast, when our amateur trappers quitted the encampment, and descending to the mouth of the little brook, took their way over North River in the direction of the accountant"s traps. Being somewhat fatigued both in mind and body by the unusual exertions of the night, neither of them spoke for some time, but continued to walk in silence, contemplatively gazing at their long shadows.
"Did you ever trap a fox, Harry?" said the accountant at length.
"Yes; I used to set traps at Red River. But the foxes there are not numerous, and are so closely watched by the dogs that they have become suspicious. I caught but few."
"Then you know how to _set_ a trap?"
"Oh yes; I"ve set both steel and snow traps often. You"ve heard of old Labonte, who used to carry one of the winter packets from Red River until within a few years back?"
"Yes, I"ve heard of him; his name is in my ledger--at least if you mean Pierre Labonte, who came down last fall with the brigade."
"The same. Well, he was a great friend of mine. His little cabin lay about two miles from Fort Garry, and after work was over in the office I used to go down to sit and chat with him by the fire; and many a time I have sat up half the night listening to him as he recounted his adventures. The old man never tired of relating them, and of smoking twist tobacco. Among other things, he set my mind upon trapping, by giving me an account of an expedition he made, when quite a youth, to the Rocky Mountains; so I got him to go into the woods and teach me how to set traps and snares, and I flatter myself he found me an apt pupil."
"Humph!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed the accountant; "I have no doubt you do _flatter_ yourself. But here we are. The traps are just beyond that mound; so look out, and don"t stick your feet into them."
"Hist!" exclaimed Harry, laying his hand suddenly on his companion"s arm. "Do you see _that_?" pointing towards the place where the traps were said to be.
"You have sharp eyes, younker. I _do_ see it, now that you point it out. It"s a fox, and caught, too, as I"m a scrivener."
"You"re in luck to-night," exclaimed Harry eagerly. "It"s a _silver_ fox. I see the white tip on its tail."
"Nonsense," cried the accountant, hastening forward; "but we"ll soon settle the point."
Harry proved to be right. On reaching the spot they found a beautiful black fox, caught by the fore leg in a steel trap, and gazing at them with a look of terror.
The skin of the silver fox--so called from a slight sprinkling of pure white hairs covering its otherwise jet-black body--is the most valuable fur obtained by the fur-traders, and fetches an enormous price in the British market, so much as thirty pounds sterling being frequently obtained for a single skin. The foxes vary in colour from jet black, which is the most valuable, to a light silvery hue, and are hailed as great prizes by the Indians and trappers when they are so fortunate as to catch them. They are not numerous, however, and being exceedingly wary and suspicious, are difficult to catch. It may be supposed, therefore, that our friend the accountant ran to secure his prize with some eagerness.
"Now, then, my beauty, don"t shrink," he said, as the poor fox backed at his approach as far as the chain, which fastened the trap to a log of wood, would permit, and then, standing at bay, showed a formidable row of teeth. That grin was its last; another moment, and the handle of the accountant"s axe stretched it lifeless on the snow.
"Isn"t it a beauty!" cried he, surveying the animal with a look of triumphant pleasure; and then feeling as if he had compromised his dignity a little by betraying so much glee, he added, "But come now, Harry; we must see to the other traps. It"s getting late."