The Ice Queen

Meanwhile Aleck, startled by the upset of the sled and Jim's disappearance, had let go of his support. Now, seeing Jim safe, he was trying to regain it, when suddenly Tug saw hi...

"I tell you what, boys," Tug cried, after a great effort, "there's no use trying any more till we have smoothed a road, and I think, Captain, you'd better set all hands at that."

When all the property of our shipwrecked crew had been brought ashore it made a very small heap, and the biggest part of that seemed to be the bedding. Everybody noticed this, a...

The pain of this farewell did not long cloud their faces. Tug and Jim had had no luncheon, and were growing anxious for something to eat. Down at the mouth of the river stood a...

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...

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 t...

"Afloat?" Tug repeated, after a minute. "There are cracks on each side of us, and a narrow one part way behind, between us and that high hummock over there to the southward, whi...

"Precious little, I guess. Besides my clothing, which won't make much of a bundle, I don't own much except my shot-gun, and my weasel-trap, and my odds-and-ends chest, and some...

"What are you reading?" asked Tug, who was the last boy in the world to be interested in a book, unless it was one about animals, but who had nothing else to do just then.

Aleck's hand alone was shown; and though he held both of his arms as high as he could, the other side had the majority, and would not accept his resignation.

They trudged slowly on again until they thought they must be close to the farther end of the island, when they found progress interrupted by a low headland of rocks partly cover...

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 whic...

Jim knew he must keep quiet, so he stood like a statue, trying to forget his stinging ears, until the flock had recovered from its surprise, when he knocked over a second bird.

What should be done? Aleck was sure that their only chance for life lay in getting the boat afloat; but unless it could be brought nearer the edge this could not be done, and pe...

When they arose next morning the air was much lighter, for it was no longer snowing. Breaking their way out after breakfast, Aleck and Tug climbed to the crest of the hummock ab...

After luncheon the three boys went over to inspect their old boat, and came back towards evening, bringing the oars, some straps of iron that had guarded her keel, the drag-rope...

The ropes were seized with a will, but the heavy boat could not be dragged in the snow until it had been lightened; then by great exertion it was taken over the fifty yards that...

It was the Captain's voice, who felt it a part of his duty to be the first "on deck" in the morning, but had a rival in his sister, who was quite as active as he.

"I'll fix that all right," Tug said, showing some small forked and notched sticks he had cut out of oaken chips. "Come out with me, and I'll show you how to set a trap that will...

There was a roguish twinkle in the Captain's eye, as though oil was not so precious but that they might have burned a few more drops of it; but an order was an order, and everyb...

How to get down into the pit was now the great question. Guided by the light of the fire, steadily eating its way into the butt of the log in spite of the storm, they cut down a...

The day was a bright one, and Aleck, the oldest, who was a skilled workman in the brass foundry, although scarcely eighteen years of age, had given himself a half-holiday in ord...

The others rushed after them too, and it was exciting sport, for the chase often led them into deep drifts and down the scraggy sides of the hummock; it thus became the scene of...

"You see," said Aleck, "though I've about seventy-five dollars ahead, yet when we have bought what we shall need, there will not be more than forty dollars left. Now, if we go t...

The sun had been up an hour when Aleck woke again, and pulled Tug's ear, at which that young gentleman sat up and was going to fight somebody right away. But Aleck pounced on hi...

As this skater approached, they could see that he was a tall young man, wearing cap and gloves of sealskin, and a fur-trimmed overcoat. He had skates of the newest patent, and,...

The warm rain continued all that day and the next night, while the boys rested, except that Tug went to his set-lines and brought back a fine pike of about six pounds' weight, w...

When half-way down the hill on their return they saw Katy, who had been at the beach, wave her handkerchief, and turn to come and meet them. At the same instant they caught sigh...

Katy, meanwhile, had been looking after clothing and provisions. On Tuesday evening, when Tug came in after tea, she was ready to read to him a full list, as follows:

They began to tell him, and at every sentence his "Wall, I swanny!" was thrown in, to show the astonishment with which he listened. At last he seemed to recollect himself.

With aching heads bowed under their burdens, and tired limbs, they had returned to within, perhaps, a hundred yards of the beach, when the barking of dogs, mingled with a girlis...

To rouse themselves, hastily gather a few eatables, and make their way ashore had been the work of a very short time, though done with great soreness and much hobbling, after th...

"This ought to bring us some small birds, and maybe an owl or two," said Tug, as he watched the dense clouds of snow hurled along from the northern waste of ice.

All the members of our party, to whose courage and independence of mind my story has borne witness, immediately and anxiously exerted themselves to relieve their hospitable rela...