Page 5 - A Hero of Ticonderoga

nigh the Fort. There’s always a doctor there, an’ it’s sort o’ protection, if the
garrison be reg’lars. Now, Seth, start up your team, an’ I’ll boost on the sled

till it’s square on the road again."

So saying, he set his shoulder to one of the sled stakes, while Seth carefully
started the oxen forward. With a heaving lurch and prolonged creak, the
sled settled upon evener ground without disturbance of its passengers or its

burden of house gear and provisions, which, till now, had hidden from view
of the hunter a gentle little cow in lead close behind it.

"How far be we from the Fort?" Seth asked.

"Nigh onto five mile," the hunter answered, after considering their
whereabouts a moment. "After a spell you’ll come to a better road on the

ice of the crik, if you take the first blazed path beyend here, to your left. It’ll
fetch you to my cabin, where you’d better stop till morning, for you can’t no
ways git to your pitch till long arter nightfall. I know where it is, for I come

across it, last fall, when I was trappin’ mushrat up the crik. My shanty’s the
first thing in the shape of a dwelling that you’ll come to, an’ can’t miss it if

you foller the back track of my snowshoes. It hain’t so great, but it’s better’n
no shelter, an’ you’re more’n welcome to it. Rake open the fire an’ build you
a rouster, an’ make yourselves to home. I’ve got some traps to tend to, but

I’ll be back afore dark," and, almost before they could thank him, he
disappeared among the trees.

Seth took his place upon the sled, and, as it moved forward, the forest again
resumed its solemnity of silence, that was rather made more apparent than

at all disturbed by the slight sounds of the party’s progress. It was a silence
that their lonely journey had long since accustomed them to, but had not

made less depressing, for, in every waking moment, it reminded Seth and
his wife how every foot of it withdrew them further from old friends and
old associations, and how long and wearisome the days of its endurance

stretched before them.

The remainder of the day was made pleasanter by the chance finding of a
friend in a strange land, and with a prospect of spending a night under a