Roy Norton

“ The wolves should not have him! When I returned, Kentuck called to rest, and I threw myself on the blankets by his side, and was soon fast asleep. At intervals he awoke me when he moved, and I crawled up to put more fuel in the stove. Outside the dogs sniffed round the tent fly, and the short arctic day swept on across the sky. ”

“ We unharnessed the dogs, and gave them their fish, threw the line between the trees, and dragged the canvas across it, mounted the stove with its battered pipe that refused to join, brought in the blankets, and opened the grub sack.
I gathered near-by dead brush to start the fire, and had my hand in the flour sack and the sourdough can unswaddled, when I heard Kentuck's ax swinging into the tree he had chosen for fuel. I hoped it would have soft boughs on the end that we could drag in for a mattress over the snow, because I was deathly tired and stiff. ”

“ Whatever else we have to have, the first is fire.”
I rushed back out, and worked madly there in the gloom, cutting sufficient wood to last for a while, and then returned with it piled on the sled. And, surmising that it might be serious, I slashed off and brought back with me the top boughs of the tree, to protect the blankets from the snow. I refilled the stove, piled the boughs deeply and smoothly, and helped him to roll off the blankets until I could lay him upon this comfortabe couch. I made three other candlesticks, and, reckless of the expenditure of light, put the tent in a blaze. ”