I--think--sometimes I'd give most anything to see them and tell them I'm happy." Then they were silent, and presently Skipper Ed knew that the boys were sleeping.

But for a long time he lay awake and thought of other lands, and the friends of his youth and the days when he lived in luxury; and he wondered if, after all, he had been one whit happier in those days, with all the fine things he had, than were Bobby and Jimmy here in this rugged land, with no luxuries whatever.

"We do not need much," he soliloquized, "to make us happy if we are willing to be happy.

Health and love, and enough plain food to eat and clothes to cover us, and a shelter--even a snow house--and we have enough." Before day broke they were astir; and the sun had not yet risen when they repacked their sledges and harnessed the dogs, and drove down over the ice toward the _sena_.

For a mile the ice was smooth.