The Ice Queen Part 7

The botanical name of the plant is _Zizania aquatica_; and among it flourish not only the common white and yellow water-lilies, but that splendid one, the _Nelumbium luteum_, which Western people call the lotus.

This rice formed an important part of the food of the Indians who lived where it grew. In and out of the marshes run narrow ca.n.a.ls, kept open by the currents, and through these the Indian women would paddle their canoes, seeking the ripe heads, which they would cut off and take ash.o.r.e to be threshed out in the wigwam, or else they would shake and rub out the rice into a basket as they went along. At home the rice would be crushed into a coa.r.s.e flour in their stone mortars, then made into cakes baked on the surface of smooth stones heated in the coals.

The stalks, round, smooth, and straight, were of service to the Indians also. Out of them they made mats and thatching for their lodges, and they served as excellent arrow-shafts, a point of fire-hardened wood, of bone, or of flint having been fixed in the end.

[Ill.u.s.tration: JIM AND KATY BRINGING THE RUSHES TO CAMP.]

In warm weather these broad, submerged marshes, undulating in color-waves--green in spring, golden-yellow in midsummer, and warm reddish-brown in October--as the breeze swept across the vast extent of pliant reeds, formed the home of a great variety of animals, whose numbers were almost unlimited. There, in the darkly stained water, lurked hosts of small sh.e.l.ls and insects--dragon-flies, beetles, and aquatic bugs and flies, whose habits were always a matter for curiosity. Then, where insects and mollusks were so numerous, of course there were plenty of fishes, great and small, the little ones feeding on the bugs and snails, the larger on them, and some giants--like the big pike--on these again. Nor did this end the list.

After the big fish came the muskrat; after the muskrat--in the old days, at least--sneaked the wolverine; after the wolverine crept the stealthy panther; and for the panther an Indian lay in wait.

The marshes were full of birds, too, in the bird-season--small, piping wrens; suspicious sparrows; ducks and rails and gallinules of many kinds and many voices; herons and cranes and hawks; coming and going with the seasons, making the yellow reeds populous with busy lives, and vocal with their merriment. Now, however, all was silent.

Our travellers would have preferred skating across the marshes rather than outside upon the windy lake, but it was reported that warm springs came out of the ooze in many parts of the rice mora.s.s, keeping the ice so weak (though not melting it quite away) as to make skating unsafe. This danger was not so great, perhaps, in a winter so unusually cold as this one was proving itself to be, as it had been shown to be in milder seasons; but they did not want to run risks.

"How noisy it will be all around this islet in three months from now!"

Aleck remarked, as they were preparing for bed. "Then you will hardly be able to hear yourself speak for the frogs."

"Before there were any lighthouses on the lake," said Tug, "sailing was pretty much guesswork; but my father told me the sailors, when they approached the sh.o.r.e, used to know where they were by listening to the bull-frogs. The bulls would call out the names of their ports, you know: San--_dusk_--y! To--_l-e-e-e_--do! Mon--_roe_!

De--_troi-i-i-i_--it!"

Chapter IX.

SKATING BY COMPa.s.s.

The next day was Sunday. Fortunately, the sacred day had found them in such a position that they could spend it quietly. Katy persuaded Jim and the two young men to listen while she read them some chapters from the little Testament she had carefully packed among her "necessary articles."

This, together with the work that _must_ be done, took up a good part of the morning, and the afternoon was spent in making a trip to the boat, looking the situation over carefully, and laying plans for a very early start the next day. Supper over, they soon crawled into bed, and woke at day break, ready for work, and all the better for their day of rest.

After a hasty breakfast camp was broken, and work was resumed at the hummock. All hands labored with such a will that long before noon they had let the boat down to the smooth white plain upon the other side; and though it got away from them at the last minute, and went spinning off on its own account, no harm was done.

The onward march was then resumed, and splendid headway made. At noon a short halt was called and gladly accepted, all lounging upon the straw and boxes in the boat, munching crackers and cheese, and drinking Katy's cold chocolate. The sun had been out all the morning, and the ice was not only a trifle soft, but frequently rough, which had made the skating and dragging a little harder work than before.

No land appeared ahead, but Aleck knew the name and position of a lighthouse just visible upon an island at the mouth of a river away off at their right. He therefore took out of his pocket a small map of the western end of the lake, that he had copied from a big chart, and began to study it. He found that it was about fifteen miles across the end of the lake to a certain cape on the southern sh.o.r.e, which lay beyond the great marshy bay into which emptied the river just mentioned. He took the direction of this cape from where they were at present, by compa.s.s, and made a note of it in his pocket-book. It was almost exactly southeast. Aleck reckoned on reaching so near there by sundown that the party could go ash.o.r.e if very hard pushed by any misfortune or bad turn of the weather, though it was too long a march to make unless they were compelled.

"But supposing we find open water, and have to change our course?"

asked Katy.

"Well, we shall know, at all events, that we mustn't go east of southeast, and must try to keep as close to that direction as possible. I don't like this sunshine and westerly breeze. I'd much rather the weather kept real cold."

"Why?" said Jim. "It's much nicer when it's warm."

"I'm afraid of snow and fogs, Youngster. Now let us be off."

No snow or fog came to bother them, however, and at sunset they were out of sight of any landmark, and travelling by the compa.s.s, like a ship at sea.

You may ask, How could they be sure they were following it truly, since they had no object, like a long bowsprit, to guide the eye in ranging their course into line with the needle point, as the steersman on a ship does when he glances across his binnacle?

This is the plan they took: The compa.s.s was a small one, but it was hung in a box so as always to stand level. It was, in fact, an old boat compa.s.s which Mr. Kincaid had had for many years. This was set exactly in the middle of the seat at the stern of the boat, where Katy still skated, with her hands resting upon the stern-board. Here she could keep her eye easily upon the face of the compa.s.s, and make a straight line from its pointer through the middle of the boat. When the compa.s.s point "southeast" and the stem-post of the yawl were in line, she knew they were going on a straight course. When these were out of line, she knew her team had swerved, and she called out "Right!" or "Left!" to bring them back to the true course, just as a quartermaster would order "Port!" and "Starboard!" to his helmsman.

The sun went down slowly at their right hands as they rushed along, and as Jim saw his shadow stretching taller and taller, he found it difficult to keep pace with the older lads. Noting this, the Captain ordered a halt, and put Jim into the boat as a pa.s.senger, tying his sled behind.

"Don't you want to ride also?" asked Tug of Katy, very gallantly.

Katy was tired, and one of her skate-straps chafed her instep a little, but she didn't propose to give up.

"Oh, no," she said, cheerily. "I have so much help by resting on the stern of the boat that I can go a long time yet before I give in.

Besides, who would steer?"

So they rushed away again, the clink-clink of their strokes keeping perfect time on the smooth ice. All at once--it was about four o'clock in the afternoon now--a dark line appeared ahead, and in a few moments more they could plainly see open water across their path.

When they became sure of this they went more slowly, and in about ten minutes had approached as close as they dared to a wide s.p.a.ce like a river, beyond which white ice could be seen again. Here all knew they must spend the night, for it would be foolish to attempt to cross before morning.

"Well," remarked Tug, as they came to a halt, "according to orders, it's my duty to take the axe and cut fuel; so I can loaf, for there's no wood to chop round here that I see;" and he pretended to search in every direction.

"Loaf? Not a bit of it," shouted Aleck, with a grin. "My order to you is, Unload that tent, and set it up on the ice! Jim will help you.

I'll help Katy make a fire."

"I wish you would," said the girl. "I'm 'fraid I shouldn't make it go very well out here. I have never built a kitchen fire on ice."

"This is the best way."

Saying this, Aleck took two of the largest pieces of wood from Jim's sled, and laid them down a little way apart. Then he laid across them a platform of the next largest sticks, and on top of this arranged his kindling, ready to touch a match to.

"We won't set the fire going till we are quite ready for it, and--"

"But I'm cold," Jim complained.

"Well, Youngster, I've heard that the Indians never let their boys come near the lodge fire to get warm, but bid them run till they work the chill off. You'd better move livelier if you want to get warm, for we can't afford any more fire than is necessary for a short bit of cooking. Katy, what do you propose to have?"

"I thought I would make tea, boil potatoes, and bake some johnny-cake in my skillet. May I?"

"Oh, yes, but you must economize fuel."

With this warning, Aleck struck a match, and the little fire was soon blazing merrily in the "wooden stove," as Katy called it. Only one or two sticks had been burned clear through before the fire had done its work, and was put out in order to save every splinter of wood possible. They sat down in the shelter of the boat to eat their dinner, and enjoyed it very much, in spite of the cold, their loneliness, and the gathering darkness.

Meanwhile the tent had been set up. Over its icy floor were laid the thwarts taken out of the boat, the rudder, and two box covers, which nearly covered the whole s.p.a.ce. On top of this was placed as much straw as could be spared, and upon the straw Aleck and Tug spread their blankets.

Dinner out of the way, the after-part of the boat was cleared out and re-arranged, until a level s.p.a.ce was left. Here, upon a heap of straw, beds for the younger ones were arranged. Then the spare canvas was spread across like an awning, and was held up on an oar laid lengthwise. This made a snug cabin for Katy and the wearied Jim, who were not long in creeping into it. Rex followed, and slept in the straw at their feet, which was good for them all.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "THE LITTLE FIRE WAS SOON BLAZING MERRILY."]

With the coming of darkness came also a damp sort of cold, that caused them to huddle close in their blankets; and though they presently fell asleep, it was with a shivering sense of discomfort that spoiled the refreshment.

Midnight pa.s.sed, and Aleck, only half awake, was trying to tuck his blankets closer about him without disturbing his bedfellow, when the tent was suddenly struck by some large object, and considerably shaken. Alarmed and puzzled at the same time, Aleck paused to listen an instant before rising, when the shrieks and barking of the sleepers in the boat came to his ears. He sprang out of his blankets only in time to see two shadowy objects rise from the camp, and drift away across the face of the moon, which was just rising.