Ice Queen (Illustrated Edition). Ernest IngersollЧитать онлайн книгу.
rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_11c2433b-714b-5bab-a15a-d70dde8c1694.jpg" alt="image"/> "LAY ON!"
When this short and stirring tale of a tail had been concluded, the Captain's voice was heard.
"Now for bed!" he ordered, winding up his watch, whose golden hands pointed to nine o'clock.
Partially undressing, they tucked themselves into their quilts and blankets on the crackling straw, and silence followed. Sleep was slow to close the eyes of the younger ones, who were kept awake by their strange situation; and Rex, lying at Katy's feet, frequently raised his head as the roaring wind shrieked through the tall trees outside, or rattled a loose board in the roof with a strange noise.
The first one to awake next morning was Aleck, who looked at his watch by the glimmer of the coals, and was surprised to find it after eight o'clock, though only a gray light came through the little window of the cabin. Creeping out, he raked the embers together, laid on some fresh wood, and hung the kettle on the spike. Then he called his companions, who sat up and rubbed their eyes.
"Katy, you lie still till the boys go off. We'll bring you some water, and then you can have the house to yourself for a while. Get out of this, you fellows! Jim, bring a pail of water for the cook. Tug, you and I will go and see how the boat has stood the night."
Two minutes later they were gone. After Jim had brought the fresh water (he was slow about it, because he had to rechop the well-hole) the girl sprang up to make herself neat, and was busy at breakfast when the boys pounded the door like a battering-ram with the axe-handle, "so as surely to be heard," and begged to know if they might come in.
"Good-morning!" she greeted them. "How is the weather?"
"Weather!" exclaimed Tug, spreading his hands before the fire, and working his ears out from underneath a huge red comforter just as I have seen a turtle slowly push his head beyond the folded skin of his neck. "Weather! It's the roughest day I ever saw. I don't believe old Zach himself could skate a rod against that wind."
(Zach was a six-foot-three lumberman in Monore, who was noted for his great strength.)
"Then how can we go on?" asked Katy, dropping eggshells into the coffee-pot.
"I'm afraid we can't," Aleck said, soberly; "at least, until this gale goes down. It is very, very cold, and I'm sure we are much better off here. Don't you all think so?"
"You bet!" shouted Tug.
"You bet!" Jim echoed.
"Then I must worry about dinner," said Katy, with a pretended groan which made them all laugh.
At breakfast came the promised chops. Then, while Katy and Jim set the cabin into neat shape, the older lads went after more wood, and, having done this, walked out to the neighboring marsh and cut great armfuls of wild rice and rushes, with which to make their straw beds thicker and softer. This, and other things, took up the morning, and then all came in to help and hinder Katy while she got dinner.
When it had been set out they found half a boiled ham, potatoes, some fried onions ("arctic voyagers always need to eat onions to prevent scurvy, you know," Katy explained), and even bread and butter; but the last item represented almost the end of their only loaf.
In the afternoon the wind moderated, the clouds that had made it so dark in the morning cleared away, and the sun came out. Under the shelter of the long wharf and breakwater they walked out on the ice to the lighthouse, where they had been so often in midsummer; but now it was shut up, for there would be no use in burning a signal-light on the lake after the cold weather of the fall had put a stop to navigation, until spring recalled the idle vessels.
Supper was simple, but they had lots of fun over it, and then all set at work to help Aleck make straps of canvas to put over the shoulder and across the breast when they were hauling on the drag-rope. This contrivance saved chafing, and gave a better pull. Jim had pooh-poohed the taking of a sail-needle and some waxed twine along as unnecessary, but Aleck had persisted; and here was its service the very first day. Before the trip was through with, everybody wanted a hundred little articles they did not possess, worse than they would have missed this sail-needle had it not been brought.
Chapter VII.
The First Day on the Lake
No howling gale disturbed their rest that night, and on the next morning, which was Friday, the third day out, breakfast had been disposed of long before the hour of rising on the previous day. What had they for breakfast? Hot and tender buckwheat cakes, with syrup made from maple sugar melted in a tin cup. The boiled ham and some crackers were put where they could be got at easily for luncheon.
The stowing of the loose goods in the boat took no longer than Katy required to get the mess kit packed after breakfast. As the day was fine, and the ice, as far as they could see to the southward, whither their course lay, was smooth and free from snow, the sled was loaded with cut wood and rushes, ready for making a fire, and Jim was appointed to drag it.
As they were leaving the cabin, after a last look to see that nothing had been forgotten, Katy spoke up:
"Why can't we take along some of this nice straw? It doesn't weigh anything to speak of."
"Oh, we can't," says Jim, crossly. "Girls are always trying to do things they know nothing about."
"May's well begin to rough it now as any time; can't expect a cabin and a straw mattress every night," was Tug's somewhat gruff remark as he went to the sledge.
"But," the girl persisted, rather piqued when she saw how her suggestion had been received, "it might be very nice to spread it on the floor of the tent. Seems to me you might take it."
She was talking to Aleck now, who, she knew by his face, opposed the plan; but he, seeing how much in earnest she was, went back, gathered up a big armful of the cleanest straw, and heaped it in the stern of the boat, while she brought a second bundle.
This matter settled, Aleck and Tug put their heads through the new harness, and were soon rushing along at a stirring pace, while Katy skated behind, holding on to the stern of the boat to steady it; Jim followed with his sled, and Rex galloped here and there as suited him.
The ice for miles together had been swept clean by the wind, and was like a vast, glaring sheet of plate-glass. Most of it was a deep, brilliant green. Here and there would be stretches of milky ice, and now and then great rounded patches would suddenly meet them, which were black or deep brown, and at first frightened them by making them believe a patch of open water suddenly yawned in their path. But, when they examined closely, they could see that this black ice was two or three feet thick, like all the rest on the open lake.
They were never at any time more than a mile or so from the edge of the great marshes which bordered the low margin of the lake, and at noon they knew they had skated twelve miles, by reaching a certain island standing just in front of the reedy shallows.
Thither they gladly turned for luncheon; skates were unbuckled, a big fire was built, the snow was cleared away, and the spare canvas spread down to sit upon, while Katy prepared to warm up the extra supply of coffee she had made in the morning for this purpose.
Not much talking had been done on the march; breath was too badly needed to be wasted in that way; but now "tongues were loosed," and a rattling conversation kept time with the crackle of the dead sticks on the fire.
"Captain," said Tug, "have you noticed how that ridge in the ice bends just ahead, and seems to stand across our course?"
"Yes, I have, and I fear it will be troublesome to cross. Jimkin, you're nimble; climb that cottonwood, and tell us what you can see."
"All right," said Jim, and was quickly in the tree-top.
"It looks like a rough, broken ridge, stretching clear to shore. I guess we'll have to climb over it. I can't see any break."
"Where