breakfast was late the next morning, for katy proposed to vary their fare by frying some snow-birds with bacon, and jim was called upon to help pluck and prepare them—work which did not please that young gentleman very much.
"i suppose now we shall have nothing but snow-birds, snow-birds," he growled.
"do try and be a little more cheerful, jim," said katy. "you are always grumbling about something."
"what else do you want?" asked tug. "you have got beef, though it's dried, and bacon and poultry."
"flesh, fowl, and good red herring," quoted aleck, from an old proverb.
"all but the herring," grunted the youngster, crossly. "now if only we had some fish—"
"fish!" tug shouted, leaping to his feet. "never thought of it, as i'm a dutchman! why shouldn't we? we have only got to cut a hole in the ice, and 'drop 'em a line,' as the man told his wife to do when he went off to californy."
"strange we never thought of that," said katy.
"strange? i'm the biggest dolt in three counties. why, i'll catch you some be-'utiful muskallonge for dinner. come on, captain. let's cut a hole while the boy is cleaning those twopenny tomtits."
"hold on!" cried the disgusted jim; "i'm coming too."
"no, no, my dear child" (tug's voice was that of a pitying mother). "remember captain's order. you're to be a nice boy, and help in the kitchen. maybe we'll let you cut the heads off our fishes, if you do well with the birds. ca-a-reful!" and the tormentor dodged a club hurled by the angry lad, who wished (and said so) that he was only a little bigger.
jim and katy both felt it was hard indeed that he should be deprived of this particular fun, in which he took so much interest, and it seemed as though the big fellows might have waited. the cook would willingly have let her scullion depart, but an order was an order, and he had to stay, plucking savagely at the pretty feathers of the innocent buntings, and declining to come back to good-humor, until the lads returned with the report that they had cut two holes in the thin ice that formed over the "lead," which, the reader will remember, was crossed just a few rods back, and now were ready to set their lines.
here was a chance of revenge. jim's own line was the most important one in their small stock. he was tempted to refuse to let them use it; but he was not a bad fellow, and a better heart prevailed.
"you'll find my line and pickerel spoon in that little box of things in our chest," he said.
tug walked up to him and offered his hand.
"jeems, i'll accept your apology for throwing sticks of wood at your uncle, and call it square. agreed?"
"yes!" said jim, with a laugh, and peace was restored.
doubtless you expect an entertaining chapter out of the fishing, but it can't be given if we are to stick to the facts of this cruise. no: the big muskallonge they hoped to catch was somewhere under the ice, but whether it was because he didn't see their bait, or was not tempted, or knew better than to bite, certain is it that none of these giants of winter fishing were caught. with the toothsome pickerel they had better luck, and several were taken on this first and on following days, so that jim did not lose all the fun by his unlucky engagement in the kitchen. the greatest adventures of the trip were not so much in fishing and hunting as in being fished and hunted after; and these were to begin without much delay.
the day the log was found and the first snow-birds were captured it had turned cold again, and it remained so for a whole week; but our heroes were kept busy in watching the traps, which caught them more snow-birds than they could eat; in attending to the fishing; and in getting wood. the snow did not melt at all, for the weather was very cold indeed, and sometimes the wind blew frightfully, but always in such a way that the hummock sheltered the tenthouse pretty well, so that, with the help of a big fire, they could keep warm enough. for amusement, they marked out a checker-board, and played checkers and other games. they tried their hands—or, rather, their heads—at spinning yarns also; they examined each other in geography or grammar, and held spelling competitions, choosing words out of dr. dasent's book, which they came to learn almost by heart. at all these studious entertainments katy was likely to be ahead. but when the subject was turned to arithmetic, aleck became teacher, for that was his favorite study.
thus the week had passed, and its close completed the fifteenth day since they had left home, which seemed very far away now. they had no anxiety so long as the weather held cold; or, if any one felt worried, he did not talk about it.
at the end of this week, however, the wind changed in the night to the southward, so that on the eighth morning of their stay in the igloo they found the air almost as balmy as spring, with a gentle breeze from the south. the sun was shining, also, and no birds came near the house all day. this was compensated for, however, by their taking the largest pickerel yet. towards noon it clouded up, and began to rain, melting the snow with such rapidity that the whole region was covered with slush. the shapeless tent-roof let streams of water pour in at the sides, and, altogether, affairs were very disagreeable.
no one felt disposed to grumble, however, since, when the snow had been washed away, or cold weather came again to freeze solid the slush and surface-water, they could go ahead on their journey—something all were extremely anxious to do.
the wind continued to blow from the south all night, and when aleck went out next morning he hurried back with an alarmed face to report that distant open water could be seen in that direction.
"the snow has almost gone. i must take a scout after breakfast, and see what the prospect is."
as soon as the coffee and fried pickerel had been disposed of, therefore, aleck set out, taking jim with him.
when two hours had passed, and the scouts did not return, tug and katy became alarmed, and went to the crest of the ridge. it had grown so foggy, however, that nothing could be seen.
"hadn't we better make a big smoke," katy suggested, "as a signal? the fog might lift for a minute, and give them a chance to catch sight of it. they must be lost."
"it's a good idea, as are most of your notions, katy. i'll get some of that wet root-wood, and make a fire on top of the hummock."
it was done, and another hour passed. chilly with the fog and the raw wind, they had gone down into the hut to get warm, and were just attending to the "kitchen" fire, when their ears were startled by a loud, sharp noise, like the report of a distant cannon, only much sharper; then another, still louder; then a third, somewhat nearer; and, after a minute's interval, a fourth tremendous crash, close by the house, which trembled under their feet and over their heads as though an earthquake had shaken it.
"the ice is cracking!" tug cried, seizing katy's hand, and dragging her to the boat, into which both jumped in terror.
an instant later tug recovered himself. "this is no use," he said. "our ice is firm just here, and i don't hear her bursting any more. let's go outside."
"don't you think we'd better put some of the food-boxes and things into the boat, so that they won't be lost if the ice here should break to pieces suddenly?"
"yes, we might do that. let's hurry."
five minutes was enough for this work, and then both went out and climbed upon the hummock. they found the whole appearance of things changed towards the south and east. where, yesterday, had lain one broad white field of solid ice, as far as the eye could reach, now were spread before them (for the fog had lifted a little, so that they could see better) the long, slow waves of a lake of blue water, filled with cakes and wide sheets of floating ice.
"oh! oh!" katy cried, wringing her little hands at the thought, "aleck and jim are drowned."
"no, i guess not," said tug, encouragingly. "they are probably safe on some of those big pieces of ice."
"but how will they ever get back?"
"i don't know," her companion answered, slowly. "if only this terrible fog would go away, so that we could see something, perhaps we might help them. i don't know what we can do now but to keep up our smoke."
"i wonder if we are afloat?" katy asked, trying to steady her voice, for she saw how useless it was to weep when so much might be required of her any minute. "ah, rex, good dog, what shall we do now? can't you find your master?"
